'The 100' Season 3 Spoilers: Ricky Whittle Speaks Out About Departure, Real Reasons Behind Lincoln's Death [VIDEO]
If Taylor Swift is searching for a little Bad Blood: Part 2 inspiration, she need look no further than The 100.
Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) met his end during "Stealing Fire," and it appears the Grounder wasn't killed of entirely for the sake of the storyline. If you were paying attention to Twitter in early March, you would have seen a series of tweets from the Brit's mother during which she called out executive producer Jason Rothenberg for his 'disgusting' business practices.
Finally got full story from my son,@JRothenbergTV should be ashamed! Disgusting behaviour from grown man & one in 'power to an honest person
— mags whittle (@magster53) March 2, 2016
I hope he shares the sad truth so u all understand why he had to walk away. Nobody should have to deal with bullies alone, talk to someone. — mags whittle (@magster53) March 2, 2016
Now that Lincoln is officially in the ground, the actor is ready to dish on the reasons behind his departure and the distinct lack of Lincoln during season 3. Speaking with AfterBuzz TV, Whittle said "enough was enough."
"[Rothenberg] abused his position to make my job untenable. What he did was disgusting and he should be ashamed," Whittle explained. "He was professionally bullying me, cutting out all the storyline I was supposed to be doing, cutting lines, cutting everything out, trying to make my character and myself as insignificant as possible."
It would have been amazing to see more of Lincoln's backstory, particularly in the wake of the Mount Weather massacre. With a target on his back courtesy of Lexa's kill order, Lincoln was forced to assimilate with a population that was not particularly pleased to have him amongst their ranks. While we saw that play out once Pike started to take control, The 100 never brought us in on the big transition.
Despite his negative experience with the series, Whittle does not think viewers should tune out.
"[Fans should] continue to support the show, and it's going to continue to try to entertain. It's going to be controversial, that's what it always was. From day one it was controversial. We were killing off characters from the beginning," Whittle explained. In spite of recent deaths, the actor encourages fans to remember that there are still numerous LGBT and PoC characters on the series. "Literally, the show has everything, so stay with it. Stay with my family. Stay with my friends, this cast, [and] this crew who are working their a**es off."
Tune in Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on The CW to see how Octavia will handle Lincoln's death (see a preview below). Whittle can next be seen as Shadow in Neil Gaiman and Bryan Fuller's American Gods.
