The 100 Interview: Bob Morley Previews What's New and What's Same Ol' in Season 6

The 100 takes the characters we know, puts them 125 years in the future on a brand new planet as the show starts Season 6 in "Sanctum." What's being called Book 1 finished with last year's finale and now the story moves to Book 2. 

We visited the The 100 set with a group of reporters and spoke with Bob Morley about what's coming up for Bellamy, including what his relationships are like after what happened before the Earth was destroyed last season. Read on for edited excerpts from the conversation. 

What’s the relationship going to be like with Bellamy and Clarke now that they’re kind of leaders again? Last season there were some challenges, so how are they going to work through that?

They still have to kind of resolve what went down last season with Madi, putting the chip into Madi, being left in the fighting pits, and being on opposite sides of warring factions. So that’s something that definitely is touched upon and they have to figure out a way to be able to get through that. But it’s really taking in that mantra from Monty, “Do better and be the good guys,” that they’re both trying to adopt and work upon. It’s a work in progress, as it is most seasons. The challenge of trying to do the right thing and even trying to define what the right thing is and the “good guy” terminology is in a new planet where everything’s new basically.

In the beginning of the season, how do they decided who to wake up and why to wake those people up?

BOB MORLEY: I think it comes down to – like the exciting thing about this season is there’s a whole kind of new adventure squad and a whole new group of people. Bellamy obviously has ties to Spacekru, but you know, this exploring this new planet he’s not too familiar with, there’s a bit of deliberation about who to take. I don’t want to spoil that just yet, but yeah. I don’t want to spoil that at all in fact.

Can you tease anything about Bellamy’s relationship with Jordan [Shannon Kook] because that relationship was kind of sprung onto him a bit.

BOB MORLEY: It’s kind of funny, at the end of the season he kind of becomes this surrogate parent, him and Clarke, with Jordan. Jordan’s such an interesting character because he’s spent his whole life on a spaceship with just his mom and dad. I know if I spent – what is he like 24?  -- 25 years with just my parents, I’d probably be a little bit insane. Take from that what you will. Shannon’s a great addition to the cast, and he’s a lot of fun. Jordan is a very quirky kind of character that I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen that much on our show, so I think Bellamy is a little taken back by it, not really sure how to deal with that situation, but it’s an exciting addition that’s for sure. 

Are there any parallels between his relationship with Jordan and Bellamy’s relationship with Octavia, who was in kind of a similar situation, where she grew up a little bit confined?

Yeah, I guess there’s always those parallels. I mean, we all grew up on a spaceship, now that I’m thinking about it, so I guess it’s not too far removed from what they were used to. In terms of the parallels, Jordan and Bellamy haven’t gone through those trials and tribulations that Bellamy and Octavia have, so there’s not all that baggage there that has to be unpacked. Maybe there are some similarities, but they’re jumping off at two different points basically this season.

Bellamy and Madi kind of developed a bond in the finale. How do they kind of pick up and do they rely on each other at all?

Now that Clarke’s back on the same side now, it’s more of a Madi/Clarke situation there. Bellamy, as always, kind of has to think about his family with Octavia. He’s more or less dealing with Spacekru because that was kind of defined as his family -- and Octavia. Not that Madi isn’t part of that, but it’s definitely more of a Madi/Clarke situation because they were on opposite sides of the war at the end of Season 5, so it’s something they have to deal with too. When it comes to storytelling, I’m sure that that’s the story that you’ll see. Bellamy and Madi are probably going through a lot of stuff off-screen. 

Talking about Spacekru, do they still see themselves as Spacekru and the Grounders? Is there Wonkru still? 

I think Wonkru kind of disbanded, especially at the end when Indra said, “You broke Wonkru,” to Octavia. Whether or not Octavia is taking that on board, I don’t know. Maybe you can press Marie about it. It’s very much about exploring this new world, and it’s not necessarily – old alliances aren’t hanging around as much as they have been previously. So yeah, press Marie. You’ll probably get more answers out of her. 

On Bellarke.  Any chance it’s going to be this year that we might see them?

Oh wow, I don’t know. I guess just as much chance as there was all those other years? That’s just a minefield right there. Have you guys had this soup? [Morley picks up a cup of soup.]

On Jordan

I wouldn’t say socially inept, but [Jordan] definitely has an awkwardness about him. There’s a real charm to him too that I think he’s really been able to encapsulate what Chelsea brought to Harper and Chris to Monty. It’s quite sweet actually. He looks crazily like the two of them melded together, which is great casting. But yeah, he does bring his kind of like a naive charm to the character that we haven’t seen in the show before. It’s quite nice. 

What can you tease about fun stuff coming up for Bellamy and Echo because they’ll pick up right where they left off, I assume?

I think we delve into a bit more of Echo’s backstory this year, which is quite nice. I think it’s something that we needed to flesh out and to start to understand where Echo is coming from. But yeah, those two, still very much in love. But yeah, we’ll be looking a bit more into that backstory there with Echo. Tas [Tasya Teles] does some great work, which I’m really excited for everyone to see. We’re going to get into the emotional realm with Echo and Bellamy, so yeah that’s a story to check out this year as well. 

Exploring this new world, were there any flashbacks in your mind to Season 1? 

BOB MORLEY: For me as an actor, I’m like, “Yeah this is kind of funny,” because it does feel like the show’s been recreated. We’re doing a new planet, and I think there are even some lines about déjà vu or “We’ve done this before,” or this, that and the other. So there are callbacks for sure. It’s once again building a world. We’ve had the last five seasons kind of fleshing out the Grounder mythology and all that, so this year it’s much more figuring out a new world and building that story behind those new people that we come across.

This is a show that reboots itself almost every season. Now that you’ve kind of reached the point where you’re literally blowing up the world and starting completely fresh, do you think that there’s actually a way to top this and do it again this year?

Look we’re definitely giving it a crack. We have some new writers to the team. You can tell there’s like new voices coming in. The show feels quite different. We still hold strong to the same core values and stuff like that – whatever values we do have, brutal values – but yeah, having a new set of writers, you can hear their voices come through and the world being totally different. It’s different for sure, but it’s exciting. I’ve always thought that Jason and his writing team have found a way to recreate the wheel almost every season, and this is basically just doing that all again but on a larger scale. 

The 100 premieres Tuesday, April 30 on the CW.

Read More

The 100 Season 5 Interview: Bob Morley Teases Bellamy's "Gotten a Bit Soft"

Bellamy has spent the last six years dreaming of his reunion with his sister on The 100. On "Sleeping Giants," Spacekru is the closest they've been to finding a way to get back to Earth. Will Raven find a way to make it happen? And, if it does, what threats will they face?

I visited The 100 set in Vancouver with a group of reporters to talk to Bob Morley about how Bellamy's changed over the time jump, his desire to get to the ground, teases about the likely reunions, and more!

Check out the video interview and Q&A below!

Is it good to be playing almost your own age?

I don't know. I think Bellamy is definitely way more mature than me, I'm pretty immature, so... I don't know about acting my age in real life. On screen, he's much more mature than I am. Yeah.

How has he changed over the time jump?

That six years in space changed a lot. The group up there. We're calling them Spacekru or something like that. They are like this new family unit up there and he's had to use Clarke's advice of using his head and his heart to become more of a well-rounded leader up there. Raven is like his second-in-charge. Everyone runs things together. They always make decisions together. It's a nice community up there and it's definitely calmed him down from like fighting and killing people every other week. After the six years off, maybe he's gotten a bit soft. I'm sure he'll get back to it.

What dynamic are you really excited for the fans to see that's the changed the most over the time jump?

The one that I think I was really excited to get into was the Blake relationship, the siblings, to see how they've both changed. They kind of had a bit of a like a reconciliation at the end, but it was over the radios and very brief and then radio silence. That's one that's really important to Bellamy. That kind of dictates a lot of his decisions as well. Yeah, because he's pretty focused on that, that's one that I also am gravitating towards. The Spacekru and that family unit is another thing that is deeply important to Bellamy and really drives the direction he takes this season.

What's the dynamic going to be when you have Octavia who is risen up and Clarke...

This season, it feels like there's a couple of different shows going on, because there's so many different groups and leadership groups and who's in charge of what and where. It's interesting to see the power struggles between all the groups and actually who is really in charge. This season has been tricky for me, like with Bellamy as well, for Bellamy coming from coming from being Spacekru and knowing that he's got the backs-- [indecipherable] of those six or seven. Whereas when he gets back down to Earth that changes pretty quickly. 

Do you see any parallels between this season and Season 1?

You know, I saw more parallels in Season 4 to 1. Yeah, like, I watched it again the other day. I think that 4 really reminded me of 1 for some reason. I'm really blanking on 4 now. All the years end up melding, I'm like, "Hang on." I got a beating in 5. In a way, returning to space there's that parallel, but the world is much more expansive now and there's much more groups. In Season 1, it was about the kids on the ground and then the Grounders. I think it's a little more complicated than Season 1. I think most of the seasons, you could draw a parallel between them all. It's strange to come back and have that six year break and then for me to try and figure out who is he after only having like six months off. Yeah, whereas, I can recall memories of one Fall quite easily and now there's like a six-year gap in the middle on the Arc. What did they do up there? You know. Trying to figure it out.

Lindsay talked about that there's a difficult decision about how to get down to the ground. What are Bellamy's thoughts on them leaving the Ring?

It's funny to say that he's more head and heart, but the decision to get to the ground is very much driven by his need to see what's happening to his sister. He believes that Clarke has passed away and he doesn't know any of this stuff. That's the driving force for him-- is the hope that his sister is down there.

Once the Spacekru does get to the ground, what are some of the obstacles and struggles they face?

There's definitely a lot of returning of Mother Nature type things-- animals, and creatures, and critters, and stuff like that. That's one of the struggles.  And also, the elements, as well, and how the planet has changed because of praimfaya. It's funny in this show, you're like, we've got to get to this place and then you end up there really quickly, but then when you look at the map of where we're going, it's like really far. You're like, "How did they get there so quickly?" It's the show. We cut there. In terms of the challenges on Earth, the threat other than the elements and environments, the threat kinda is always a human threat between the groups kind of thing more than anything else.

Speaking of that, when Skaikru came down, they had weapons which gave them superiority over the Grounders. These new people who are coming down will have technology as well, how does that dynamic of two groups that have that technology change that battle?

It's interesting what developed throughout the bunker and the story will unfold, but Spacekru, we just have algae. That's about it. That's all we're bringing to the table here. In terms of-- maybe you're right. Maybe, there is more parallels to Season 1 and the high-tech and low-tech type of interactions like with the Grounders and Skaikru. In terms of a technology battle kind of thing, most of that thanks to Illian is all destroyed and praimfaya, obviously. That probably did most of the damage. Yeah, from my character, not so much. He's always been pretty lo-fi. Bellamy: guns and his fists. A thug.

Can you tease any of the flashbacks we'll be seeing?

I can't. I'm not too sure actually in terms of the flashbacks. I'm not sure how much I can say on that really. The story and the mythology of the bunker and the new people will be told hopefully. 

How will the relationship between Bellamy and Clarke be different once they eventually find each other?

It's pretty funny. It's not funny obviously to find out she's still alive. It's obviously a huge shock for him. She's also focused on her unit, her family unit, which is Madi. And, I have my Spacekru and they really deviate in that sense. There's no longer this community of The 100 it feels like. Everyone's got their people now. There's a lot of the "my people," "your people" stuff as per usual, but in this particular season, it's very definitive as to who people are loyal to, so that dictates where their relationship is and where it goes. 

How much are the people who are on the ground in the conversation or thoughts of the people on the Arc?

I think there's definitely a reference to how much Bellamy talks about his sister. It's obviously on his mind all the time. As you'll see, they all learn from each other from space and learn different skills through-- Each person has brought their skills and shared them with the others. I imagine there's been a lot of conversations about what's happening down on the ground, but they're really in the dark up there. I'm sure they chat about Praimfaya and all that jazz too. There's a big, smoldering planet right there in front of them. It's the elephant in the room. It occupies a lot of Bellamy's thoughts, that's for sure.

What's it like to craft six years of Bellamy's life that you're never going to get to live?

That's the tricky bit. Six months off and six years have passed for him. I had to think about who he was when he was on the Arc with this sister and how he was as a brother and kind of go back to that mode of who Bellamy is and tap into that vein of how he used to be. There's a lot of that. He definitely felt as a nurturing figure in terms of the Spacekru and Earth has a nasty habit of bringing out the worst in him, so yeah, it was nice to go back into this older brother, fatherly type character for a wee while until things get really bad. 

The 100 Season airs Tuesdays on the CW.

Read More