The Batwoman TV series is coming to The CW, bringing Bruce Wayne’s cousin, Kate Kane, to the Arrowverse.
Caroline Dries (The Vampire Diaries) will serve as the writer and will executive produce, along with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Geoff Johns. Marcos Siega directed the pilot. He brings a vast CV from director/producer TV runs on Dexter, The Following and The Vampire Diaries, most recently with work on the pilot episode of The Passage, as well as God Friended Me, You, Time After Time and Blindspot.
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Siega replaced David Nutter, the acclaimed small-screen director of iconic Game of Thrones episodes, as well as Arrow, The Flash, Smallville, Roswell, The X-Files and many more. While Nutter ceded his role for personal reasons, he will remain a credited EP on the Batwoman pilot.
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Here’s everything else we know about the show so far…
Batwoman Trailer
Here’s a new teaser for Batwoman, brief as it may be, focused more on a night-riding Kate Kane, rather than her crimefighting alter-ego.
Here’s the first full trailer!
And we got this “first look” at Kate Kane planning some tweaks to the Batman suit…
And here’s the original teaser…
Batwoman Cast
Ruby Rose (Orange is the New Black, John Wick: Chapter 2) was introduced as Kate Kane/Batwoman in the Elseworlds crossover, before launching into her own Batwoman TV show in 2019.
Rachel Skarsten, who previously played Dinah Lance (Black Canary) in the short-lived 2002 Birds of Prey series, has been cast as main villain Alice. “If Batwoman had a Joker, it would be Alice, the leader of her Lewis Carroll–inspired Wonderland Gang,” her character description reads. “Swinging unpredictably between maniacal and charming, Alice has made it her mission to undermine Gotham’s sense of security.”
Dougray Scott is set to play Jacob Kane, the father of Kate/Batwoman; a role that’s being referred to as the male lead in the series, as trades such as Deadline report. Jacob is depicted as a former military colonel who has contempt for vigilantes as he attempts to tackle the crime of Gotham with his private security firm, The Crows. However, in the ultimate irony, he’s unaware that his own daughter has become the very thing he reviles, a vigilante.
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The character of Jacob, a fairly recent addition to the canon, was introduced in DC’s Detective Comics #854, dated August 2009. If his television trajectory matches the comics, then the adversarial relationship he has with vigilantes, specifically (his daughter,) Batwoman, is destined to become a partnership, since he is known for utilizing his connections and resources to help in her crimefighting endeavors.
The veteran Scottish actor, Scott, was recently seen on Crackle’s Snatch series, miniseries The Woman in White, Full Circle and Fear the Walking Dead. However, he’s best known from films such as Mission: Impossible II, My Week with Marilyn, Ever After: A Cinderella Story, Hitman and a TV run on Desperate Housewives. However, he’s also the Pete Best of the X-Men films, since he was originally cast to play Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s 2000 film until injuries sustained while filming the aforementioned M:I-2 prevented him from taking the role, which eventually went to a then-unknown Australian actor named Hugh Jackman.
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Meagan Tandy (Teen Wolf) is playing Sophie Moore, described as “After graduating from military academy, Sophie rose through the ranks to become a high-level private security agent and one of Gotham’s staunchest protectors. Despite her bite and regimented outlook, Sophie has a soft side, illuminated by Kate Kane’s return.”
Camrus Johnson (Luke Cage) is Luke Fox, “A Dark Knight loyalist and son of Wayne’s R&D director Lucius Fox, Luke works to keep Wayne Tower secure in his boss’s absence. While Luke considers himself the guardian of all things Batman — specifically his symbol — he also recognizes the city’s need for a new hero.” DC Comics fans will recognize Luke Fox as the character known as Batwing.
Nicole Kang (You) will play Mary Hamilton. “Excitable, talkative, and an influencer-in-the-making, Mary is Kate Kane’s step-sister and polar opposite. But what Mary lacks in a filter, she makes up for with her compassion for Gotham’s underserved communities, proving she has more in common with Kate than she thinks.”
Batwoman Release Date
Batwoman will arrive on the CW in Fall of 2019. It premieres Sunday, October 6th at 8pm ET, and will be followed by Supergirl at 9pm ET.
Batwoman Story
Here’s the official synopsis for the Batwoman TV series:
Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Three years after Batman mysteriously disappeared, Gotham is a city in despair. Without the Caped Crusader, the Gotham City Police Department was overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm, by kidnapping his best Crow officer Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy). Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane (Elizabeth Anweis), who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate –– the daughter he still has –– at a distance. But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes –– a dark knight vigilante. With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary (Nicole Kang), and the crafty Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson), the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend, Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice (Rachel Skarsten), who’s always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, she must first overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.
We learned quite a bit about Kate Kane in her debut during the Arrow chapter of the Elseworlds crossover. For one thing, Ruby Rose is a great choice, and she gives Kate/Batwoman both gravity and swagger.
further reading: Elseworlds Explains Arrowverse Batman Status
The episode establishes quite a bit about the status of the Arrowverse Batman, as well, and this will set the tone for the Batwoman TV show down the line. Batman retired years ago, and Bruce Wayne has been missing for three years. In that time, Gotham City has fallen even deeper into despair and crime than usual, but there are still plenty of opportunities for familiar Bat-lore to appear.
Batwoman has become a big part of the extended Batman family in recent years. First introduced in Detective Comics #233 and created by Edmond Hamilton and Sheldon Moldoff in 1956, Batwoman has gone through two different incarnations and they’re both named Katherine. The Silver Age Batwoman is best known as Kathy Kane, who was created in order to offset rumors that Batman and Robin were homosexuals. Kathy created the persona of Batwoman to win the Caped Crusader’s affection.
Kathy Kane was later dropped as a character by DC in 1964 when editor Julius Schwartz decided that he wanted to take the Batman books in a different direction. She would reappear in the ’70s but was eventually killed off for good. Other writers, such as Grant Morrison, have reimagined her in the years since.
The far more popular version of Batwoman — and the version we’re getting in the Arrowverse — was introduced in the 2006 DC weekly, 52, by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Keith Giffen. This version is Kate Kane, a tough-as-nails former military school student, and is actually Bruce Wayne’s cousin on his mother’s side. Kate is also one of the first LGBT members of the Bat Family. The character has previously been in relationships with Renee Montoya and Maggie Sawyer (a connection The CW is surely aware of).
read more: Every DC Comics Easter Egg in the Elseworlds Arrowverse Crossover
Unlike Kathy, who was mostly featured in books alongside other members of the Bat Family, Kate has enjoyed some memorable solo runs. In fact, Batwoman was one of the most popular books of the early New 52 era before the creative team of W. Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams III left the book after DC refused to let Batwoman marry Maggie Sawyer.
Most recently, Batwoman has been one of the stars of the relaunched Detective Comics by James Tynion IV and finally has her own solo series again. It’s written by Marguerite Bennett, with pencils by Fernando Blanco, Steve Epting, and Stephanie Hans.
With such a long career in comics, Batwoman will certainly make a great addition to the Arrowverse as the DC TV universe prepares to explore Gotham City. We’re looking forward to seeing what Ruby Rose can do with this beloved character!
Batwoman Villain
Rachel Skarsten, who will be playing Batwoman antagonist Alice, the leader of the Wonderland Gang, recently spoke to TV Line about what to expect from her character, saying: “She is the big bad of the show. She plays the main antagonist. She has a very complex relationship with Batwoman, played by Ruby Rose, and she sort of teeters between sane and completely insane. Which is really fun.”
Skarsten teased that Alice has “an axe to grind with another character on the show,” and also “wants to ryn Gotham … and bring mayhem wherever she goes.”
“[Alice]’s a great manipulator of people,” Skarsten continued, ”and because she can sort of sit between the world of sane and insane, she can appeal to many different types of people. And actually, who she brings on side with her, on the show, is quite interesting.”
Batwoman Costume
Check out a look at Ruby Rose in her full, and perfectly accurate, Batwoman costume right here!
John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.