Sunday, March 31 was the final day of WonderCon, which took place at the Anaheim Convention Center March 29-31, 2019. First on the agenda for the day was The 100 panel, which was at 11:00am, so we weren’t in too much of a hurry that morning.
We arrived on site around 10:30am and grabbed a couple of breakfast burritos from one of the food trucks. Then I headed into the Arena for The 100 panel, while Josh went off to walk the Exhibit Hall floor, since he doesn’t watch The 100.
The panel started off with a world premiere screening of the entire first episode of Season 6. This was very exciting, as Season 5 left off with the group in space, with Clarke and Bellamy having awakened after being in cryo-sleep for 125 years — and the episode ending with the text “End Book One.”
I’ll provide a summary of the episode, which will contain spoilers, so skip ahead to the panel portion of this article if you want to avoid those!
The 100 Season 6 World Premiere
In addition to just Clarke and Bellamy, Jordan (Monty and Harper’s adult son) has woken up more people. A group made up of Clarke, Bellamy, Echo, Murphy, Emori, Shaw, and Miller go down to the new planet, while Raven and Abby stay on the ship. However, Raven figures out that it’s not actually a planet, it’s a moon! But before the group leaves, Raven and Shaw share some alone time together.
Down on the moon, the group comes across a lake — reminiscent of Season 1, when Octavia got attacked by something in the water. Murphy jumps in, dragging Emori with him… and they’re fine. The group camps on the beach that night, lighting a fire. But they get attacked by a swarm of bugs, and run. Unfortunately, one member of their group runs into some sort of radiation boundary, and ends up dying.
SPOILER! Click here if you want to know who died.
It was Shaw.
They are able to turn off the boundary, and cross through. The next day, they find an abandoned settlement from the Eligius III mission. They wander around, wondering where everyone went. Inside a house, they find some creepy chains on the wall. Murphy also finds a music player and tries to get Emori to dance with him, but she isn’t interested. Instead, he puts on a concert, singing along to the music, while the others watch in amusement.
Bellamy reads a children’s book that seems to explain where everyone went. Apparently, when the two suns align, the plants make people crazy and want to hurt others — which explains why Emori has suddenly started attacking Murphy.
Meanwhile, back on the ship, Abby has woken up Kane. She starts to do surgery on him, but she needs blood. She takes some from Raven, who is not very happy with her. But she needs more. Niylah wakes up Octavia and takes her blood, even though she wasn’t supposed to wake her up. Octavia and Abby get into an argument, and something goes wrong with Kane. They end up having to put him back into cryo-sleep to save him.
The 100 Panel and Audience Q&A
After the episode, the panelists came out on stage, which included showrunner Jason Rothenberg and actors Tasya Teles (Echo), Richard Harmon (Murphy), Eliza Taylor (Clarke), Marie Avgeropoulos (Octavia), Shannon Kook (Jordan), JR Bourne (Russell), and Sachin Sahel (Jackson). Bob Morley (Bellamy) had been originally scheduled to attend the panel, but apparently couldn’t make it, so Sachin, who hadn’t been scheduled to attend, took his place. Bob Morley’s absence was a bit of a disappointment for me, as last year Eliza Taylor hadn’t been able to make it to the WonderCon panel, and I haven’t seen the two of them together on a panel since WonderCon 2016!
As mentioned above, there was a scene in the episode where Richard Harmon’s character, Murphy, puts on a show for everyone by singing along to a song on a music player that he finds. The cast members fondly recalled that day on set, Tasya Teles commenting, “That was probably my favorite day at work.”
Jason Rothenberg talked about how this was the most challenging season for him to make, saying, “We call it ‘Book 2’ for a reason,” in that they’re basically starting over. However, Rothenberg seemed to enjoy the “world building” that they were able to do this season, and teased that there were still “a million things to be revealed.” He also pointed out that we don’t even see panelist JR Bourne’s character in this first episode, but assured us that JR is “amazing” this season. We do see him in the trailer though. JR spoke to coming in as a newcomer this season, saying that they welcomed him with open arms.
In the episode, we saw that Eliza Taylor’s character, Clarke, seems to have lost the trust of the people around her. Eliza confirmed that Clarke would be working on earning back that trust this season, and commented that it was funny to watch the first episode again and realize, “Wow, they were pissed!”
Marie Avgeropoulos talked about her character, Octavia, who has also “burned the house down” when it comes to people putting their trust in her. Marie commented that Octavia knows redemption is necessary in order for healing, but whether that is something she’s willing to do, the fans would just have to watch to find out. However, Marie also pointed out that Octavia wasn’t the only one to blame for what happened in the bunker, so she’s not ready to “let sleeping dogs lie” at the moment. Jason Rothenberg chimed in that first she would have to acknowledge her mistakes before redemption could occur, and that redemption is “a long, long process for her.” Additionally, Marie confirmed that Bellamy is still angry with Octavia, so redemption would be a long way for the two siblings.
Shannon Kook, who plays Jordan, the son of Monty and Harper, talked about joining the ensemble, and how his character looks up to the others so much, but at the same time has to find his own voice. Shannon commented, “He’s naive and young, but he’s also been preparing to join the ranks of his heroes.” Shannon added that sometimes you’ll be wondering whether he is a fool or wise. He also confirmed that Murphy is his favorite!
Richard Harmon agreed with the moderator’s assessment that one of the themes this season is “Face your demons.” Richard wanted to say more, but couldn’t. However, he did say that this is his favorite Murphy season.
As for Echo, Tasya Teles confirmed that we would get to see a little of her backstory this season. She also spoke about how being on this new planet is challenging for her character.
Jason went on to talk about how dangerous this new planet is, for many reasons, including environmental, as we saw in the episode. He explained that when the suns align, the plants give off a toxin that makes everything on the planet homicidal. When the moderator asked whether the planet was the “big bad” this year, Jason answered, “There’s a lot of big bads.” However, he did acknowledge that it would be a challenge for them to survive.
But is there an opportunity for happiness? JR Bourne, whose character lives on the planet, confirmed that yes, there is dancing, and joy. He pointed out that he’s smiling in the trailer, to which Marie ominously asked, “What’s behind the smile?” He didn’t specifically answer the question, but he did say, “It’s gonna be one hell of a ride.”
We also learned that the playlist we see on the music player is actually Jason Rothenberg’s playlist. The moderator pointed out that she saw Hozier on that playlist. However, Jason said Hozier would not be on the show this season.
As for Clarke and Madi’s relationship this season, Eliza said that Clarke takes a bit of a step back, considering that the two are separated at the beginning, when Clarke goes down to the planet but Madi stays behind, still frozen. Jason confirmed that Madi’s role as Commander does play a role this season, but he wouldn’t say how. He also confirmed that there’s a Dark Commander, which we see in the trailer, but he said he couldn’t talk about him.
Jason confirmed that this is not the last we’ll see of Henry Ian Cusick’s character, Marcus Kane. He said that Ian was doing another show, so they had to come up with a creative way to keep his character around without actually having to appear on the show.
Marie also talked about how Octavia, who did not go down to the planet, was hurt when she woke up to find that she had not only been left behind, and that Bellamy had left her, but also that she had only been woken up so that she could be used for her blood.
When the moderator asked what song the panelists would want to survive the apocalypse, Richard immediately answered, “Monster Mash.” Marie answered, “The Macarena,” while Sachin said “The Circle of Life” (from The Lion King). Tasya picked “Low Rider” and Eliza’s answer was “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd.
Because Sachin was replacing Bob Morley on the panel, he did a great impression of Bellamy, saying “We’re on the ground now, that means WE are Grounders!”
Attendees also got a chance for audience Q&A.
One attendee had spotted Sean Maguire in a The 100 picture, and Jason revealed that we would see him as early as Episode 2 this season.
Speaking to her character’s development over the years, Eliza commented, “It’s been a roller coaster.” She pointed out that she started the show when she was 23 — and now she’s about to be 30, so she feels like she has grown with her. Richard agreed, having also realized that this show has been most of his adult life, as he had started when he was 21. Jason chimed in, saying that the more the writers have gotten to know the actors, the more they have been able to write to their strengths, and find out where they want to go. Marie added that one of her favorite things about Octavia is that she’s several different people all in one.
The question came up of who is the biggest prankster on set, and the questioner brought up a prank that Richard had pulled on Lola Flanery, who plays Madi, involving saran wrap and a teddy bear’s severed head! Apparently, Lola started it though, saying “It’s on.” Sachin reminded Eliza that they have had a prank planned for Richard for over a year and half that they still need to do — and Richard apparently already knows what it is! We didn’t find out what it was, but Richard said, “It’s my greatest fear.” Marie brought up a prank she had pulled on Paige Turco, who plays Abby, where she sprayed her between the legs so that it looked like she wet her pants! Shannon said he didn’t want to ruffle any feathers since he was new, but he warned that for Season 7, he might be waiting outside the bathroom wearing a mask.
When a fan asked the panelists what spin-off they would like to see, Richard said he would like to see when the first bomb went off and what happened in the aftermath, and other panelists seemed to agree. Then Jason revealed, “We may be working on something,” and that he’d probably get in trouble for saying that!
Another attendee asked Eliza what was the greatest villain she had faced, to which Eliza answered that the enemy she faces this season is very fierce. She teased that it is one of the “craziest” storylines she’s ever had, and Jason agreed. Jason went on to tease that they had pushed her to a “mind blowing” place this season.
As for preparation, Shannon said that coming into the show, he tried to learn as much as he could about everyone, such as by stalking them on YouTube! He also said that he and his character were similar in that he admires the actors on the show in real life, just as Jordan admires the characters on the show. JR admitted that he had been intimidated coming into the show, because he knows what it’s like when you’ve been on a show for so long and begin to “function as one.” However, Jason said that both Shannon and JR were amazing and that it felt like they had been with them the whole time.
Sachin further commented that this season is so different because “it actually feels like a different Book” and like a “completely different show.” He added that he couldn’t wait for us to see Shannon and JR because they came in so seamlessly to help build that new world and “nailed it.”
That ended the thirty minutes or so that were left in the panel following the screening of the episode.
Season 6 of The 100 premieres on April 30 on the CW, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
You can view more of our photos from The 100 panel at WonderCon 2019 below.
