Ruby Rose quitting Batwoman came as a big surprise to fans. Her casting was announced with great fanfare and despite some rumors of unhappiness on set, most expected her to stick it out for longer than a single season. But I guess if you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go. Her departure left The CW in an awkward spot: do you recast the role and act like nothing’s changed or take the bold step of writing the lead character out of the show? In the end, they chose the riskier option, with the show now to set to focus on Javicia Leslie’s new character Ryan Wilder.
Showrunner Caroline Dries has discussed this in an interview with the LA Times, explaining that they seriously considered recasting:
“I think some TV shows can get away with [recasting], but for us, it felt a little wonky. So I decided, let’s continue the storyline but let’s introduce this new character who takes on the mantle of Batwoman, and maintain Kate Kane’s legacy on the show and create a mystery around where she went and lean into the challenge.”
This ties in with what she said back in June, saying that simply finding a new actor to carry on as Kate would have by far the easier choice:
“To be honest with you, I did consider the soap opera version for a hot minute, selfishly, because we had a couple episodes already written, and transition-wise, it would be seamless [since] we already started breaking season 2. But upon further reflection, and [producer] Greg [Berlanti] helped me make this call and he’s way smarter than me about this sort of stuff, he’s like, ‘You know, I think we should just reboot the character in terms of reboot Batwoman as a different character.’ Just to also respect everything that Ruby [Rose] put into the Kate Kane character.”
The show looks set to tackle this passing of the mantle in its season premiere this Sunday. The episode is titled “What Happened to Kate Kane” and has a lot to cover. The synopsis for the episode says we’ll see the season one characters searching for the missing Kate, with Wilder finding an abandoned batsuit and donning it in order to take out gang members. There are no reports of Ruby Rose shooting any material for the second season, so if her Batwoman does appear expect it to be in flashback footage from the first season.
It remains to be seen how quickly Wilder is going to establish herself as the new Bat, though given that she appears to have a fully tricked out Batmobile this season I’m betting we’ll skip over her learning the vigilante ropes a little bit.
However it pans out, Batwoman has taken on a huge challenge in continuing without their star. Still, fans are eager to see what Javicia Leslie can do. We’ll find out this Sunday on the CW.
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/38zMehZ
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