Batwoman had a hell of an inaugural season. And to think, the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” wasn’t even the craziest storyline. But for all the superhero action and family drama, including a dead, but not really dead sister showing up to cause chaos, the biggest shocker came after the season finale.
Here’s a timeline of what went down:
May 17, 2020
The season 1 finale of Batwoman airs. The season ends two episodes shy of its initial order due to the COVID-19 outbreak shutting down production early. A Supergirl cameo was also a casualty.
May 19, 2020
Ruby Rose announces that she’s leaving the series. Initial word is that The CW series will recast the lead role of Kate Kane.
June 2, 2020
News breaks that a new lead character will wear the batsuit instead of recasting the character of Kate Kane. This is despite the fact that face swapping is actually a thing on Batwoman.
June 6, 2020
Ryan Wilder is announced as the new lead character. It’s confirmed that she’s a brand new original character and not someone from the existing DC Universe.
June 9, 2020
Rumors start to circulate that the character of Kate Kane will be killed off. CBR.com publishes the story first, but plenty of other sites, including FanSided.com, follow suit. This “news” is met with swift and obvious backlash.
June 10, 2020
The rumor of killing off Kate Kane is quickly debunked by the showrunner Caroline Dries on Twitter who promises that she has no intention of perpetuating the “Bury Your Gays” trope.
July 8, 2020
Javicia Leslie is cast as Ryan Wilder, the new lead of The CW’s Batwoman. She’ll take over the mantle, and cowl, when production on season two begins.
While I’m super relieved that the character of Kate Kane will not be killed off, I am bummed about Ruby Rose leaving for a number of reasons. For one, I watched the entire first season, so I am fairly invested in the series and dug her portrayal of the caped crusader. In addition, much of season one was driven by the Kane / Wayne family dynamics so now it all feels like it was for naught. Plus, I really love the character of Mary and was looking forward to her being an even more integral member of the bat team along with Luke and Kate. That obviously won’t happen the way I envisioned it now. And lastly, after two crossovers with the rest of the Arrowverse, I was eager for more team ups with Kara from Supergirl. They managed to establish a great rapport in just a short amount of time and seeing their relationship grow would have been fun.
With that said, I am still planning on tuning into season two of Batwoman, whenever that may be. And I am excited to see Javicia Leslie’s take on the superhero. Based on the brief description of Ryan Wilder, I get the feeling that there might be a bit more levity with her lead character, and that would be a nice change of pace, but either way I’m on board to find out.
Whatever the future holds for the woman under the mask though, Ruby Rose’s Batwomen will always exist in the 20-episode first season along with the “Elseworlds” and “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossovers.
