Rueben's Ramblings

Last July the cast and creative minds behind the new CW futuristic drama The 100 – which will debut on March 19 – graced the stage at San Diego Comic Con 2013, giving attendees a look inside the upcoming show.

The 100 is actually based on the book by Cass Morgan, which at the time of Comic Con 2013 was set to be published that fall, making it an interesting case for the executive producers and writers to adapt it to the small screen.

Matthew Miller and Jason Rothenberg, the Executive Producers on the panel, shared that even the show was adapted from the book, which was released in September, they weren’t “handcuffed it” to.

The 100 is set 97 years after a nuclear Armageddon decimated planet Earth, destroying civilization. The only survivors are the 400 inhabitants of 12 international space stations that were in orbit at the time of the disaster. Three generations have been born in space, the survivors now number 4,000. But with resources running out on their dying “Ark” – the 12 stations now linked together and repurposed to keep the survivors alive – Draconian measures, including capital punishment and population control, are the order of the day. In order to survive, the leaders of the Ark take ruthless steps to ensure their future, including secretly exiling a group of 100 juvenile prisoners to the Earth’s surface to test whether it’s habitable.

In essence the show will have two very distinct sets of locations and characters: the juveniles on Earth and the rest of the survivors on the Ark. The executive producers joked that The 100 can be looked at as Battlestar Galactica meets Lost.

The discussion then shifted over to the cast on the panel, which included newcomer Eliza Taylor (who plays lead character Clarke Griffin, the daughter of the head doctor aboard the Ark), Thomas McDonell (who plays mystery delinquent Finn), Marie Avgeropoulos (who plays stowaway Octavia Blake), Henry Ian Cusick (who plays Councillor Kane) and Isaiah Washington (who plays Chancellor Jaha).

Henry shared that his character, who is one of the leaders on the Ark, makes a “big move” in the pilot. Without spoiling what happens in the debut episode, which was actually screened during the panel, Councillor Kane makes a “move to exert control” on the Ark and viewers “will have to tune in to see” just what Kane will do next. Whereas Isaiah, who essentially plays the President of the survivors on the Ark, not only has the concerns of all those on the Ark but he also has a teenaged son, who is one of the 100 juveniles on Earth. It should also be noted that there are very few good feelings between Kane and Jaha, making for a contentious relationship between the two leaders.

On the other hand, the teens on Earth have a lot to deal with; namely being on a planet ravaged by massive devastation and Lord of the Flies-like competition between the 100 teens who now inhabit the planet. Eliza shared that her character Clarke is “a natural born leader” who learns “quickly that she has to step up” once they are on the ground for the first time in their lives.

For Marie’s character Octavia, who was hidden on the Ark by her mother who had a second child which is illegal in their world, has a “close sibling bond” with her older brother Bellamy, who conned his way onto the ship that took the 100 to Earth. Bellamy has his own mission on Earth, to do whatever the hell he wants, whenever the hell he wants, forcing his beliefs on the delinquents who splinter off from the purpose of their ‘mission’ on the planet: to see if the Earth is habitable.

To learn what happens both on the Ark and on Earth, make sure to watch the debut episode of The 100 on The CW on March 19 at 9/8c.