“If you don’t learn from the past, you’re condemned to

repeat it again,” Ricky Whittle, the star of the upcoming Starz series American Gods, tells ET. While the

sentiment could easily apply to his onscreen character, Shadow, who after an

unexpected early release from prison is recruited by Mr. Wednesday (Ian

McShane) to be the mysterious man’s bodyguard as he travels across the U.S., the

English actor is actually referring to his time on The CW series The 100, which saw his character (and fan

favorite), Lincoln, killed off after two seasons in a controversial exit from

the show.

Shortly after the episode aired last year, Whittle spoke out

against The 100 creator and

showrunner Jason Rothenberg. “[He] abused his position to make my job untenable.

What he did was disgusting and he should be ashamed,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”

MORE: Kristin Chenoweth Praises Her Powerful 'American Gods' Role

Fed up with where the character was going and the dynamic on

set, Whittle asked to be let go. “I took myself out of a negative situation,”

Whittle tells ET. “I think it was important. I stood up for myself and others. It's

something to feel proud of, and it's something I'd do time and time and time

again.”

Following the accusations, Rothenberg released a short

statement to the press: “Ricky Whittle is a talented actor; I appreciate his

work on The 100 and wish him all the

best moving forward on American Gods.”

He did not address Whittle’s comments directly.

Now that he’s removed from the situation, Whittle says it’s

an incredible shame that his relationship with Rothenberg overshadowed his time

on The 100. “For some reason there is

a poison in there that just won’t go away, unfortunately,” he says, adding that

the cast and crew are incredibly passionate about their work -- but that

everything that happened with the show’s creator soured things. “If they ever

wanted me to do anything for that show, I would do it because I loved that

character and I loved that show and those people, but I will never work for

that person [Rothenberg] ever again.”

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Instead, the actor is taking lessons he learned from that

experience to the set of American Gods,

where he’s found renewed satisfaction in playing Shadow and in the relationship

he’s forged with co-creators and executive producers Bryan Fuller and Michael

Green. “I am now blessed with karma and a situation where that’s never going to

happen [again],” Whittle says, adding: “I don’t think without the darkness you

can really appreciate the light. I’m so grateful for the past and having that

experience with a disgusting individual because now I’m so happy and I bounce

on the way to work.”

On the upcoming series, which premieres Sunday, April 30,

Whittle finds himself surrounded not only by celebrated names in TV (Fuller is

responsible for Pushing Daisies and Hannibal; Green produced Heroes and wrote the upcoming Alien: Covenant and Blade Runner 2049) but an A-list ensemble of actors including

McShane, Gillian Anderson, Kristin Chenoweth, Emily Browning, Orlando Jones,

Crispin Glover and Pablo Schreiber.

“All of a sudden, it started to snowball,” Whittle says of

the show, which first came to his attention on social media when Starz put out

a call to fans for suggestions (#CastingShadow) and they responded with the

actor’s name. Whittle was the first to get cast and was followed by McShane, an

idol of his growing up, and then soon after, everyone else. “Every time they

cast someone, it was a gift for me, personally.”

Another gift is Shadow. Initially drawn to his strength,

Whittle found himself having to work backward to create the character. “We knew

where we wanted him to be,” the actor says, but when audiences first meet

Shadow, “he’s a shell of man … but he goes on and moves forward.” Having

experienced loss in his own life, Whittle brought a real emotion to Shadow, as

he mourns for the death of his wife (Browning) at the onset of the series. And there’s no ignoring the similarities to

Lincoln. Despite the very different settings and stories, both are strong yet

stoic. Both are morally good people. And it’s something that the actor sees in

both characters.

“I often joke that Lincoln died and became an American god,”

Whittle says, perhaps in more ways than one.