Batwoman (TV series)

Batwoman is an American superhero television series developed by Caroline Dries for The CW. Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, it is part of the Arrowverse continuity. The first season follows Kate Kane, the cousin of vigilante Bruce Wayne, who becomes Batwoman in his absence. Beginning with the second season, the series focuses on former convict Ryan Wilder as she protects Gotham City in the role of Batwoman when Kate disappears.

Development on a Batwoman series began in 2018 after it was announced that Kate would appear in the Arrowverse crossover “Elseworlds”. Ruby Rose was cast as Kate the same year, with Batwoman receiving a series order in 2019. Shortly after the conclusion of the first season, Rose exited the series and Javicia Leslie was cast as Ryan, an original character created to succeed Kate.

The series premiered on October 6, 2019, and its first season concluded on May 17, 2020, after 20 episodes. The second season premiered on January 17, 2021, and a third season has also been ordered.

Premise

In season one, three years after billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego Batman disappeared, his cousin Kate Kane sets out to overcome her demons and become a symbol of hope as Batwoman, protecting the streets of Gotham City from her maniacal sister Alice.

In season two, when Kate is presumed dead after a private plane transporting her back from National City crashes, ex-con Ryan Wilder assumes the Batwoman persona. At the same time, Alice reunites with Safiyah Sohail, with whom she shares a mysterious history, and the Crows fight Black Mask and the False Face Society. Nobody knows it yet, but a badly-injured Kate is in the clutches of Black Mask.

Cast and characters

• Ruby Rose (season 1) and Wallis Day (season 2-present) as Kate Kane / Batwoman: Bruce Wayne’s maternal cousin who, armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, dedicates herself to defending Gotham in Batman’s absence. Gracyn Shinyei portrays a younger Kate. She goes missing in the beginning of the second season when her plane crashes on her way back from National City due to an ambush by the False Face Society. Day has been cast to take over the role as Kate, where her different appearance will be explained as a surgical alteration.
• Rachel Skarsten as Beth Kane / Alice: Kate’s presumed-dead twin sister and the leader of the Wonderland Gang with an ever-changing personality who sets out to erode Gotham’s sense of security. Ava Sleeth portrays a younger Beth.
  • Skarsten also portrayed an alternate version of Beth who was displaced from her native Earth during “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and appeared on Earth-Prime. This version did not get lost during the car accident. She was later killed by August Cartwright, who mistook her for Alice.
• Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore: A military academy graduate turned high-level Crows agent and Kate’s estranged ex-girlfriend who serves as one of Gotham’s protectors.
• Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton: Kate’s stepsister and a medical student/influencer-in-the-making who makes it her mission to provide aid to those living in Gotham’s under-served communities. She eventually discovers Kate is Batwoman and joins her.
• Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox: A staunch Batman loyalist and son of the late Lucius Fox who keeps Wayne Tower secure in Batman’s absence. After Kate becomes Batwoman, he comes to understand that Gotham needs a new hero and becomes an ally to her.
  • Camrus Johnson also portrays his Earth-99 counterpart.
• Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane (season 1): Kate’s stepmother and one of Gotham’s most powerful citizens who made her fortune as a defense contractor and the CEO of Hamilton Dynamics. After Alice poisoned her and Mary, Catherine chose to give Mary the antidote.
• Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane: Kate and Beth’s father and a former military colonel with a chip on his shoulder who commands a private security agency, the Crows, in an attempt to protect Gotham more effectively than Batman could.
• Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder / Batwoman (season 2-present): A highly skilled yet undisciplined fighter living out of her van with her plant who becomes the new Batwoman after finding the Batsuit in the wreck of the airplane bringing Kate back from National City.

LaMonica Garrett also stars on “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two” as Mar Novu / Monitor, a multiversal being who tests different Earths in the multiverse in preparation for an impending “crisis” orchestrated by his polar opposite, Mobius / Anti-Monitor.

Episodes

Season 1 (2019–20)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

Development

In May 2018, The CW president Mark Pedowitz and Arrow lead Stephen Amell announced at The CW’s upfront presentation that Batwoman would be introduced in the Arrowverse series’ 2018 crossover, “Elseworlds”, which aired in December 2018, fighting alongside the other Arrowverse heroes, with Gotham City also appearing. In July 2018, it was reported that The CW was planning to develop a series around the character, to air in 2019 if picked up. The series, said to only be a “script-development deal”, was written by Caroline Dries, who would also serve as an executive producer with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schecter, and the character’s co-creator Geoff Johns. The series would be produced by Berlanti Productions and Mad Ghost Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The following month, Pedowitz noted the pilot would be completed “for mid-season”.

In December 2018, Dries submitted a “strong” script for a potential pilot episode, according to Nellie Andreeva of Deadline Hollywood. That led to the series receiving a pilot order from The CW the next month, to be considered for a series order in the 2019–20 television season. As of April 2019, the series was considered “a lock” at The CW, and reportedly had a writing staff in place. On May 7, 2019, The CW ordered the show to series. On October 25, 2019, the series was picked up for a full season of 22 episodes. On January 7, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on January 17, 2021. On February 3, 2021, The CW renewed the series for a third season.

Casting

Casting for Kate Kane was expected to begin after the announcement of the intended series in May 2018, with the intention of casting an out lesbian actress. In August, Ruby Rose was cast as Kate Kane / Batwoman. In late January 2019, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, and Nicole Kang were cast in the series regular roles as Sophie Moore, Luke Fox, and Mary Hamilton, respectively. This was followed shortly by the casting of Rachel Skarsten as Alice, Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane, and Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane.

The casting of Rose as Batwoman was met by backlash on social media and received intense criticism. DC Comics, which owns the rights to the longtime comic book superheroine Batwoman, reintroduced the character in 2006 as a lesbian of Jewish descent. Some online reactions attacked Rose for not being Jewish, while the main focus of the criticism was the assertion that the fact she identifies as gender fluid made her “not gay enough.” Rose left Twitter and deactivated public commenting on her Instagram account following the backlash.

Recasting of Batwoman

Following the departure of series lead Ruby Rose (left), Javicia Leslie (right) was cast as a new Batwoman for the second season.

In May 2020, Rose announced she would be leaving the series ahead of its second season; it was mutually decided between Rose, the studio, and the network for her to leave. The producers reaffirmed their commitment to the series and finding a new actress who is part of the LGBTQ community to lead future seasons. No reason was given at the time for Rose’s departure. Rose later called being the lead of a series “taxing” and stated her back surgery following an on-set accident in 2019 was a contributing factor in deciding to leave, saying it was “time for me to take a break to fully heal and then return” to acting. Spending time in isolation because of the COVID-19 pandemic also allowed Rose “to just think about a lot of different things and what you want to achieve in life and what you want to do,” which allowed her “a great opportunity to have a dialogue about a lot of things” with the producers.

The following month, a casting notice for a new character named Ryan Wilder was revealed, indicating the series was looking to replace Kane as Batwoman. Dries defended the decision to introduce a new character as Batwoman, asserting that the series would continue to “respect everything that Ruby put into the Kate Kane character.” She also revealed Kane would not be killed, and her disappearance would be a key storyline during season two. Matt Webb Mitovitch at TVLine and Jill Pantozzi of io9 both felt replacing Kane as Batwoman would be a detriment to the series. Mitovitch felt it would “create more problems than it solves”, saying it would take away from the established character dynamics (namely the “central” one between Kate and Alice) and the various plot threads waiting to be resolved from the end of the first season. He added: “a simple if momentarily awkward recast would have kept all established storylines and dynamics intact; Season 2 could then pick up where the solid Season 1 left off. Instead, loyal viewers will be asked to re-invest in something that is significantly new, while also possibly giving up some of the things they liked most about the show.” Pantozzi felt the series could have approached the casting of a new lead actor more creatively, given the series exists in “a universe of time travel, doppelgängers, and literal face-swapping”. She concluded, “if they are truly doing away with the Kate character it feels like a bizarre move. Fans could much easier come to terms with a simple replacement actress, than having to go through a convoluted story of why a random lesbian has taken up the cowl so soon after Kate did. … It seems like a lot of explaining to do when there’s a much easier option.” Conversely, Collider‘s Liz Shannon Miller felt a new character was “the right call” and “a big swing” for the series. Miller pointed to the “long-established precedent” in the comics of new characters taking over mantles from others. Like Mitovitch, Miller questioned what the new character would mean for the series’ supporting cast, since their connections to Kate were “their primary reason for being a part of the show’s storyline”. She also hoped “Ryan Wilder” was a placeholder name, “because the trend of naming strong female characters with traditionally male names has just gotten tired at this point”.

In early July 2020, Javicia Leslie was cast as Ryan Wilder, the new Batwoman. Rose was supportive of Leslie’s casting.

In an interview with ComicBookMovie.com when asked if she would reprise Kate at some point, Rose said, “I would totally do it. I don’t think it would serve the story because I think building the new Batwoman is more important than going back too far into Kate Kane, but of course I would.” Then she added on “I’ve watched a couple of episodes, and I think how they’re handling it is beautiful. I think it’s time to shine.”

Wallis Day was later cast as Kate Kane where it was claimed that she surgically altered her appearance. Rose, commenting on an Instagram tribute to her time in the role, stated that she was “stoked” about Day’s casting.

Filming

Production on the pilot episode began on March 4 and concluded on March 25, 2019, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Additional filming took place in Chicago, Illinois. Filming for the rest of the season began on July 4 and was set to conclude in mid-2020. On March 12, 2020, Warner Bros. Television shut down production on the series due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming for the second season began on September 3, 2020, and will conclude on May 10, 2021.

Release

Broadcast

The series debuted on The CW October 6, 2019. In New Zealand, the series is streamed on TVNZ’s free streaming service TVNZ OnDemand. In the United Kingdom, the series is shown on E4. In Canada, it is aired on Showcase.

Home media

Season 1 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 18, 2020. Special features included deleted scenes, a gag reel, highlights from DCTV’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con panels, and a behind-the-scenes featurette entitled “On the Set”. The release also included a bonus disc with all five episodes of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event.

Reception

Ratings

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series’ first season holds an approval rating of 80% based on 51 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.87/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Though it needs more time to develop its own identity to truly soar, Batwoman‘s fun and stylish first season is a step in the right direction for representation and superhero shows alike.” On Metacritic, the first season has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 88% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The critical consensus for the season reads, “Batwoman’s second season survives a soft reboot, maintaining the show’s excellence while giving Javicia Leslie plenty of room to spread her wings.”

Accolades