‘The 100’ Season 6: Eliza Taylor Interview on What’s in Store for Clarke

After what feels like an eternity, The 100 is finally returning to The CW’s primetime lineup on April 30, 2019. The sixth season of the gritty sci-fi series will air on Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT, with the new season finding the remaining survivors attempting to establish a new base on a new planet.

Series star Eliza Taylor (“Clarke Griffin”) discussed the much-anticipated sixth season during roundtable interviews while at the New York Comic Con. Taylor confirmed fans of the drama can expect the action to pick up just where season five left off. She also discussed saying goodbye to Christopher Larkin (“Monty Green”) and Chelsea Reist (“Harper McIntyre”), and how the show reinvents itself each season.

Do you feel like every season is kind of a reboot? Is that reinvigorating for you?

Eliza Taylor: “Yeah, it is. It’s crazy. I don’t know how they come up with this sh*t…stuff. (Laughing) Every season I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s brilliant. How did they find a way to refresh it and keep people interested?’ So, yeah, it’s like doing a new show every season, which is great.”

Every season has been like a new chapter, but with season six it’s like a new book. Is there a different feel to it than before?

Eliza Taylor: “I mean, there’s a lot of the same feels, obviously, with our same characters. But we are introducing a bunch more human beings into our cast which is super exciting. And we’re on a new planet. I think the one real main thing that I’m allowed to talk about – because spoilers are bad – is we’re trying to do better, as were Monty’s last words in the finale. It’s just do better and don’t screw up this new planet. So, there’s a lot more conversation and a lot more making amends for the things that we’ve done within ourselves and to the other characters.”

With the new world that you’re going to, will the series be introducing new lifeforms? Or will it steer clear of that?

Eliza Taylor: “There’s definitely some very alien-type things on this new planet, but I don’t know what I’m allowed to say.”

Will the antagonist for this season come from the new planet or will it come from within?

Eliza Taylor: “Oh gosh, there’s a bit of both really. That’s a good question and a tough one.”


Will Clarke and Bellamy continue into this new season as sort of co-leaders again? Will that be how it works going forward?

Eliza Taylor: “Yeah, it is. I think there’s a lot more comradery and a lot more of them back as a team, which is awesome because I love working with the idiot. (Laughing and looking around for Bob Morley.) We have such a good time. So, we get to be co-leaders again with each other which I like.”

Last season we saw Clarke’s motherly side emerge. This season what can we anticipate is driving her?

Eliza Taylor: “You have no idea… It’s going to be the most challenging thing I’ve done to date is all I can say. I’m scared. I’ve been doing this 18 years but I’m scared.”

Were you totally shocked when you saw the direction the season was heading?

Eliza Taylor: “Yep, I was. I’m still shocked. I hope I can pull it off.”

How far into last season did you find out that Harper and Monty were leaving?

Eliza Taylor: “I didn’t find out until that script came out. I had no idea. I was shocked. I was like, ‘What?!’ When we shot that scene, it was just a tearfest. It was so sad. Jason said they had to cut out tears because we were crying too much. It was real sad.”

It’s like losing a member of your family.

Eliza Taylor: “Yeah, it is. I mean, we can see each other again. It’s not like they’re actually dead, but we don’t get to see them every day. After six years, it’s like, ‘What?!’”

Do we pick up right where we left off? Will we see the other characters learn about their deaths?

Eliza Taylor: “Yeah, you’ll see us picking up exactly where we left off. You might be surprised as to who we wake. That’s a nice little teaser.”

The 100 Eliza Taylor
Lola Flanery as Madi and Eliza Taylor as Clarke in season 5 episode 11 (Photo: Robert Falconer © 2018 The CW Network)

You’re already acting as a mother to Madi. Will Clarke take on the same sort of role with Jordan?

Eliza Taylor: “He’s a big boy. But, yeah, I think Clarke and Bellamy definitely feel a little more responsibility to keeping him safe. Especially since he hasn’t set foot on the ground ever. So, yeah, we’re definitely a little bit parenting with him, but maybe not as much as Madi.”

Is there anything you can say about relationships season six?

Eliza Taylor: “There’s some really, really interesting pairings. There’s some really fun dynamics between characters that wouldn’t necessarily usually hang out together. Which I think our writers have been doing each season. Like, ‘Let’s put these guys together and see what happens.’ So, there will be a lot of that.”

Do you get to pitch any ideas of who you would like to see Clarke interact with a little more in season six?

Eliza Taylor: “Yeah. I don’t know if they get taken onboard but we definitely do. They encourage us, like, say, ‘I’d love to work with this person,’ or ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if this happened?’ Sometimes it happens, sometimes they don’t.”

Have they written in anything you pitched that way over the past seasons?

Eliza Taylor: “Not really, but I don’t like to pitch. It’s just like a conversation over a cocktail or something. (Laughing) Like, ‘This would be cool,’ and then maybe it works its way in. But I can’t think of anything specifically.”

Is there a storyline you really want to see Clarke go through?

Eliza Taylor: “She’s done it all. Yeah, I really wanted to play a mom and I got to do that. It would be nice for her to have a romantic partner. It’s been so long and I feel like that’s missing at the moment. So, hopefully.”

How would you sum up the tone of this new season compared to the previous seasons?

Eliza Taylor: “In a lot of ways it’s lighter. (Laughing) In a good way – not in a hammy, bad way. There’s a lot more energy about it.”