The 100 season 3 episode 8
Lexa dies in The 100 season 3 episode 7 The CW

The 100 is popular for killing off its fan-favorite characters. And this time around it was Lexa, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey, who was killed off in episode 7 of season 3. She played the Grounder's commander and love interest of Clarke Griffin.

Fans of the show were not happy about Lexa's departure and executive producer Jason Rotheberg admitted that he was "surprised" with the outrage over her death. He told TV Insider, "I think I should start by saying that for the last two weeks, I've pretty much thought about nothing else except for this. It's taken me some time to process everything, and I've been listening, reading everything I could. I took my voice out of it on Twitter because I didn't want to inflame the situation, and I felt like I didn't want to shape the conversation. I just wanted to listen and try to understand.

"I mean, we were a little surprised by it—obviously not that people were upset; you're right in the sense that we kind of knew that that would happen. The story that we're telling is a tragedy. Lexa was a meaningful character to our fans, especially LGBTQ fans, and so I knew it would be emotional, of course. What was unexpected was the level of outrage that it's generated from some people, but I do think I have come to understand that," the creator added of the fan outrage following Lexa's death by Titus.

The producer continued, "This is a show where characters die. That's another reason we were so surprised..it's a post-apocalyptic world set 100 years later in which anyone can die."

Rothenberg further teased that there will be many more fan-favorite characters would die in season 3 and they should be prepared for some shocking moments ahead. He revealed, "You can die if you're a series regular or not. This is going to be a crazy season...it's already been a crazy season. More characters that we love are going to die this season and it's going to happen soon. ] I think that people need to be prepared for that."

The show is currently on hiatus and will return with episode 9 on 31 March on The CW network.