The 100’s showrunner, Jason Rothenberg, has released a statement on Twitter in response to fan outrage over the decision to kill a major character in the CW show’s seventh and final season.
Warning: spoilers for The 100 follow.
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In the 13th episode of Season 7, aired on September 9, core character Clarke Griffin shoots and kills her best friend, Bellamy Blake, in order to prevent him from giving a vital book to the cult-like Disciples. In the resulting struggle, Clarke is unable to obtain the book before fleeing, meaning presumably Bellamy’s death will not prevent the Disciples learning the knowledge in the book, and so his death is all for nothing.
Fan reaction to the plot point has been negative, with many upset that the show did not fulfill the popular Clarke/Bellamy ‘ship’ that the fandom has popularised over the show’s seven-season run.
#The100 pic.twitter.com/DIh5uWZAeS
— Jason Rothenberg (@JRothenbergTV) September 10, 2020
In response, Rothenberg issued the following statement on Twitter: “For 7 seasons, The 100 has been a show about the dark things that humanity will do to survive and the toll those deeds take on our heroes’ souls.
We knew Bellamy’s death had to go to the heart of what the show is all about: Survival. Who you’re willing to protect. And who you’re willing to sacrifice.
His loss is devastating, but his life and his endless love for his people will loom large and affect everything that comes after, to the very end of the series finale itself.”
Bellamy, played by Bob Morley, has been a season regular on the show since it began in 2014. The show adapts Bellamy’s character from the books, originally written by Kass Morgan, but his character has altered over the course of the series as the storylines of the show diverge from those seen in the book series. The finale of the final book, The 100: Rebellion, sees Bellamy ask Clarke to marry him, an outcome seemingly many of the show’s fans would have like to have seen.
The 100 season 7 is the final season of the CW’s young adult post-apocalypse show.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Source: IGN.com The 100 Showrunner Releases Statement on Major Character Death