The 100’s John Murphy Actor Thought He Was Being Killed Off In Season 1

In a new interview, The 100 actor Richard Harmon explains how he was led to believe that his character, John Murphy, would die at the end of season 1. Harmon’s character is one of the titular 100, a group of juvenile delinquents who are sent to an irradiated Earth over a century after a nuclear war to see if it is still habitable. Having first aired on the CW on March 19, 2014, the series is now in its seventh and final season, where it has moved to a new planet known as Sanctum.

Originally, Murphy was only a recurring character, one of the many young criminals sent to Earth by the leaders of the Ark, a space station built to be humanities’ last refuge. Led by Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake, Murphy and the others quickly found themselves in conflict with the grounders, humans who managed to survive the war. Although an uneasy truce was eventually made between the grounders and the survivors of the Ark, Murphy and the others were still pitted against numerous other dangers, the most recent being the mysterious religious zealots known as The Disciples.

Speaking in a Q&A video with series creator/executive producer Jason Rothenberg, Harmon revealed that he originally did not believe his character would make it this far.

“I thought you were going to kill me. You called me to set two scenes before I had to shoot my last day of shooting on season one. I was supposed to be getting stabbed in the leg. And they said Jason wants to talk to you on set. And I was like, ‘Oh is it time to do the scene?’ and they were like, ‘No, no no, he just wants to talk to you.’ And I thought, ‘well, he’s going to kill me. It was a good run, it was great.’ I thought you were going to be like ‘it’s no longer your leg it’s going right into your neck.’ And then that was the day you told me you wanted me to be a series regular and I cried.”

The Q&A also featured a few shout-out videos from actors whose characters were not as fortunate as Murphy. Among them were Sara Thompson, who played grounder leader Josephine; Alessandro Juliani, who portrayed the Ark’s Chief Engineer, Jacapo Sinclair; and Christopher Larkin, who starred as the tech-savvy Monty Green. The actors all gave their love to the cast, thanking them for the chance to be part of the epic sci-fi series.

With season 7 now in full swing, it is likely more characters will meet their end before the show finally wraps up. Since it first aired, the show has made survival a central theme of its story, with characters sacrificing themselves, others, and frequently whatever morals they possessed all in the name of staying alive. It is doubtful that the show will deviate from this pattern now, and whatever comes next for The 100, it is likely safe to say that there will be blood.

Source: Richard Harmon/YouTube

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