In 2018 when The CW announced details
about their Holiday “Arrow-verse” crossover event “Elseworlds,” they included
the live-action TV debut of DC character Batwoman, to be played by Australian
model-actress Ruby Rose. Her “Elseworlds” appearance served as a backdoor pilot
for her own self-titled solo series, which premiered October 2019. Rose however
would only retain her role as Kate Kane/Batwoman for the initial season, opting
out of the second. Thus the character was (temporarily) written out for a new
lead to become the S2 Batwoman. Eventually The CW decided to simply recast, and
Rose’s replacement as Kate has been revealed.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wallis Day will take over for Ruby Rose as
Kate Kane in The CW’s “Batwoman.” The show even has a tried and tested method
of explaining how Day will look different from Rose as soon as she is revealed.
Kate initially disappeared via plane crash in the start of season 2, and in “Survived
Much Worse” airing Sunday, March 21, it is revealed that she was recovered and
held hostage, but with extensive injuries leaving her mostly bandaged; post-injury
facial reconstruction can be employed as an excuse to introduce a new actor for
old characters.
Day is reasonably a veteran in DC
TV shows. She portrayed Nyssa-Vex, mother of Jor-El, on the SyFy series “Krypton”
(2018-19) which focused on the grandfather of Superman and his alien home-world
before its destruction. Granted, going from pure sci-fi to gritty street-level “Arrow-verse”
action is still quite different, but Day was a favorite of “Batwoman” viewers
to replace Ruby Rose, who departed from the series allegedly due to the long
production hours involved in a 20-plus episode TV series. Show-runner Caroline
Dries had been planning to bring the original Batwoman back even without her portrayer,
to avoid the tired cliché of killing gay/lesbian characters (like Kate Kane) on
TV.
At present, the Batwoman mantle
in the series is being worn by new lead character Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie),
an ex-con who finds the Bat-suit from wreckage of Kate’s crashed plane, then
uses it to find the people responsible for her adoptive mother’s murder, among
them Kate’s criminally-insane sister Beth/Alice (Rachel Skarstein). Ryan’s
crusade has been hampered all season by a lingering injury from a Kryptonite
bullet wound courtesy of Tommy Elliot (Warren Christie). “Batwoman” airs
Sundays on The CW.
Image courtesy of SyFy Wire
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