The 100 ended on The CW almost four years ago, but some fans think it might be renewed for Season 8 to be released in 2024. Here is the truth about the rumors and everything we know about the potential future of the universe.
The post-apocalyptic drama ended in 2020 after a seventh and final season that wrapped filming just ahead of the COVID-19 shutdown.
The 100 Season 8 Rumors Explained
Talk of The 100 returning for Season 8 this year emerged thanks to a TikTok video posted by @yourboyyjustin of Octavia actress Marie Avgeropoulos standing on a chair and exclaiming her iconic line, "We're back bitches!"
The line was delivered by Octavia in the series premiere of The 100 as the group stepped out onto Earth and the sunlight for the first time in decades.
Hearing Avgeropoulos exclaiming the line once again has led some to believe she was announcing a comeback for The 100, but sadly that is not the case.
The clip's original poster explained in the comments that it was taken at Conageddon 4 (a Boston convention dedicated to The 100) in mid-March and was simply Avgeropoulos uttering her iconic line for the crowd.
Will The 100 Ever Return for Season 8?
The 100 received seven seasons on The CW airing from 2014 to 2020
Showrunner Jason Rothenberg previously explained to Collider that the decision was made to end The 100 because they did not want to "overstay [their] welcome" and let the story continue for too long:
"It’s a long time to be telling the story of one group of characters... We also didn’t want to overstay our welcome and be a show that was making episodes into Season 10 and 12, and beyond, just to do it."
He added that he never discovered if the studios and The CW would have greenlit Season 8 but he "[assumes] they would have." That said, the showrunner felt "ready" to end the story after Season 7:
"This was where it needed to add. I don’t know if the studio and network would have let us continue into Season 8. I assume they would have. They were gracious enough to let us do 16 episodes, to get to episode 100 this year, so I assume they probably would have wanted more, but we were ready."
As such, the chances are slim that The 100 will return for Season 8 in 2024 or later as the post-apocalyptic drama was able to end on its own terms with the conclusion Rothenberg had hoped to deliver.
Is The 100 Prequel Spin-Off Still Happening?
A spin-off series to The 100 entered development at The CW under Jason Rothenberg - via Deadline - in October 2019, with plans to launch the untitled prequel with a backdoor pilot in the main show.
The premise of the spin-off was to begin 97 years before The 100 with the nuclear apocalypse before following "a band of survivors on the ground" as they learned to live in this new world and fought to "create a new and better society:"
"It starts with the end of the world — a nuclear apocalypse that wipes out most of the human population on Earth — and follows a band of survivors on the ground as they learn to cope in a dangerous world while fighting to create a new and better society from the ashes of what came before."
The backdoor pilot would later air in July 2020 with Season 7, Episode 8, "Anaconda," which took a look back to the early days of the apocalypse and the Second Dawn Bunker, just as the potential spin-off would have.
The backdoor pilot introduced Iola Evans' Callie, Adain Bradley's Reese, and Leo Howard's August, who likely would have been the leads of the spin-off.
Unfortunately, after remaining under discussion through most of the following year, TVLine confirmed in November 2021 that the spin-off, which would have gone by The 100: Second Dawn, was not moving forward at The CW.
As such, with no spin-off moving forward nor Season 8 appearing likely, The 100 Universe appears to be dead at The CW, at least for now.
The 100 is streaming now on Netflix.
