I think a lot of that is attributable to Richard’s talent. Transforming it from there, all the way to the romantic lead almost, certainly of his own story, to me, was a special arc. And right away, in the beginning of Season 2, we had those scenes with Raven in the drop ship, after he shot her, where he talks about why he is the way he is, and immediately the audience was with him. I remember, at the end of Season 1, I said to Richard, “I feel like we left something on the table with that character.” We didn’t dimensionalize him enough and I really wanted to do that in Season 2. He was such an asshole, for lack of a better word, as a character in Season 1. From the beginning, from the pilot, he jumped and leapt off the screen. I loved everything about working with him, to be honest with you. There were definitely moments where we talked about, maybe he’s the only person that survived because the cockroaches are gonna outlive us all. I think he is just such a special talent and as a cockroach, as we call him on the show, I knew he was gonna be there. What did you most enjoy about his character journey and are you surprised that he actually made it to the end of the series? With everything that he did, it’s amazing that Murphy made it to the end. We arced her, over the last two seasons, to a zen Octavia place, so it just made sense to me that she was the one that got it first and was going to have that battlefield moment where she honors her brother and the fact that he saw it first, and convinces both sides, starting with her side, Wonkru, to lay down their weapons. She did not quite get that, at the end of Season 5. I feel like she’d learned the lesson of Wonkru, which is what she was applying on a global level now. Why was it important to give Octavia that moment on the battlefield and essentially have her end the war when she’s also been the cause of so much bloodshed? Once we do, then we can transcend and go to whatever comes next for us, as a species.
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With this show, we were trying to say that until we make that realization, things will be bad. I feel like end times are definitely upon us.
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Until we, as a species, realize that we’re all in this together, we are doomed. JASON ROTHENBERG: I mean, look out the window or turn on the TV. Why was that something that you really wanted to explore and dig into in this last season, and then leave that choice up to them?
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Collider: When we first spoke at the start of the season, you told me that the biggest threat of Season 7 just might be humanity’s propensity to fight because we could all be doomed, if we never get over that.