‘Batwoman’ Will Feature a New Hero Instead of Recasting Kate Kane
When Ruby Rose announced she was leaving the title role of Batwoman before the show returns for its second season on The CW, most reports claimed Kate Kane would be recast. Instead, it now appears that an entirely new character will be assuming the mantle of Batwoman on the series. The news comes via a “leaked casting call” spotted by Decider. It says the show is looking to cast “Ryan Wilder” a woman in her “mid-late 20s, any ethnicity” who “is about to become Batwoman.”
More, via Decider:
The description continued that, ‘She’s likable, messy, a little goofy and untamed. She’s also nothing like Kate Kane, the woman who wore the batsuit before her.’ And though casting calls are known to create fake parts for auditions, the ‘Ryan Wilder’ character will in fact be replacing Kate Kane as Batwoman in Season 2; and Kate Kane will not be recast.
The new character supposedly “spent years as a drug-runner, dodging the GCPD and masking her pain with bad habits,” and is “highly skilled and wildly undisciplined. An out lesbian. Athletic. Raw. Passionate. Fallible. And very much not your stereotypical All-American hero.”
Replacing Kate Kane in addition to Ruby Rose is an interesting decision, given that you could recast the part and not throw away the series’ ongoing character developments completely. Then again, finding a new actor and a new character allows the show a lot more flexibility about where it goes next. It could literally pick anyone for the part, and then shape the new Batwoman to her, rather than forcing itself to find someone who could plausibly replace Ruby Rose as her version of the character.
Batwoman isn’t expected to return to The CW until 2021, so the show still has time to find its new star and retool itself around her.
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