The dystopian landscape of The 100 has changed considerably with the showrunners constantly taking risks and blurring genres. As we move towards the fifth season of the hit CW series, which sees the story leap six years into the future, we sneaked into the Vancouver set of the show and chatted to the cast in the vast remains of an old church. The stars of the show were eager to tell us about how their characters have changed in the face of the massive time-jump, and what that means for the show going forward.

For Bob Morley, who plays the group’s reluctant leader Bellamy, it’s been a learning experience for the hot headed youngster who’s finally had to grow up. “That six years in space changed a lot. The group up there–we’re calling them Spacekru–they’re like this new family unit up there, and he’s had to take Clarke’s advice of using his head and his heart to become more of a well-rounded leader. 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 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,” Morley laughed.

Morley’s co-lead Eliza Taylor–who plays Clarke–was clearly exhilarated about the variety that the time-jump has introduced. “There’s a lot of changes. Obviously, it’s probably no secret that we’ll be reunited with both the people underground and the people in space. Yeah, a lot has happened. A lot of people have changed quite dramatically, which I’m excited to be able to talk about at some point happily,” Taylor gushed, “It’s surprising because I’m like, how many ways can we end the world and then save it again? Our writers just come up with the most brilliant ideas. This one is probably my favorite just because we get to play with the idea of being six years into the future. We’ve all gotten to really reinvent our characters.”

The entire cast were enthusiastic about the new setting, but for Jared Joseph it was a chance to take control of Nathan who he’s played for over four years. “It was kind of cool to kind of have the free reign to decide your look, I guess, and your approach to people you haven’t seen in awhile and all of that stuff, like reconnecting with certain characters. I’ve been given a lot of freedom to say, ‘This is how I feel about them. Does that work?’ That part really excited me. I got to change some relationships up on my own merit, and they would tell me if I was wrong or not,” Joseph shared.

Fan favorite Maria Avgeropoulos’ Octavia ended season four heading underground, and has for the past six years of the show’s timeline become the leader of the new subterranean world. “After the time jump, Octavia has changed quite a bit. You’re gonna see her years later and she takes a very creative way to help all the clans get along. There’s a lot of old resentments among all the clans and old resentments don’t die. So she has to come up with a very Octavia way to maintain order among the groups and you’ll see exactly how that is in Season Five. This season gets a lot darker than last season, for sure,” Avgeropoulos teased.

Octavia isn’t alone in the bunker, though–she’s joined by Adina Porter’s Indra. The fantastic actress was quick to share her insight into the most exciting thing this season has to offer. “I think it’s really interesting to see any kind of human being when they’re pushed to the brink. So you get to see all these different personalities and how they react and try to survive when they’re pushed beyond the limits that they thought they could withstand,” Porter espoused.

Are you excited for the new season of The 100? Just can’t wait to see Bellarke back together again? Intrigued by the promise of a darker season of The 100? Let us know below!

Images: The CW

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