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Wondercon 2019 | Interview with THE 100’s Shannon Kook and JR Bourne

Actors Shannon Kook and JR Bourne give props to each other, being the new recruits on The 100, which will now be in its sixth season.

During our roundtable session at Wondercon in March, we could see that JR Bourne and Shannon Kook seem to genuinely admire each other and what they bring to the series as we try to get them to talk about their characters without spoiling anything.

JR can tell us that, “Russell is a charismatic leader, definitely. I think he’s different and unique to anyone else that these guys have come across. Clark (the character) and Bob (the actor) and everybody.”

“He’s thoroughly layered,” adds Shannon.

JR agrees. “Very, very layered. And there’s the society that Russell leads, also is a like another character that’s unique to these guys and that they haven’t ever seen. So, every single one of them have this incredible journey on how they sort of adapt to this world. And some fit in better than others,” he adds a kind of knowing smile while saying this. “I think you guys are going to love, love, love seeing these guys do what they do.”

JR Bourne as Russell

JR knows how passionate fans can be, especially since he was in another popular TV series not too long ago called Teen Wolf. Even though he’s familiar with it, it hasn’t gotten to his head.


Whether you hate our characters or not, it’s important.

– JR Bourne

“I have such a deep appreciation for our fans, and I love that we have more interaction with them now,” said Bourne. “I don’t know that we’d have a job without you guys. Whether you hate our characters or not, it’s important. I don’t think they can all be lovey dovey. I think that it’s healthy to also have a little bit of anger and frustration, you know, with the worlds that we’re creating and the characters that we’re creating.”

Oh, we are pretty familiar with the anger and frustration part of the series, but that’s part of the reason why we love the show so much. Of course, if you’ve seen the trailer, you know that there’s something sinister about Russell, and maybe his community, but he won’t divulge on when we’ll see the darker aspect of his character.

“I think it will be more of an enjoyable journey to see when that does sort of happen, but yeah, there’s obviously some stuff that will take place and I think that that also plays on the part of the journey of these guys and Clarke and the whole rest of that gang in their adaptation to that planet. He being the leader of it is potentially going to be a clash.”

As for Shannon and his character, Jordan, at the beginning of the season, he’ll have to deal with the death of his parents as well as everyone’s treatment towards him.


…the fans want to protect Jordan.

– Shannon Kook

“Yeah, I think they see my parents in him. Jordan’s also dealing with their death, too, because he was in cryo when they passed away. So, it’s something that he still needs to deal with through season six. And then, I think, through the other characters, it’s almost like another reminder for them, their deaths, by seeing me. And then they feel like a responsibility towards him, but I’m almost a grown man, so don’t treat me like a child. But he’s also so naive that you want… the fans want to protect Jordan.”

The 100 season 6 premieres Tuesday, April 30th, at 9pm on The CW.

By Nat, the Geek Girl

Southern California native who likes movies, books (Shadowhunter Chronicles, NA, YA fantasy, Red Rising series), TV shows (The Sandman), and San Diego Comic-Con. I also like to write, but don't get to do much of that aside from on here. I fell into the BTS rabbit hole, and I refuse to leave.