‘Batwoman’ Boss, New Star Preview Season 2’s Massive Changes

Batwoman Season 2 is about to going through some massive changes. With star Ruby Rose gone after Season 1, actress Javicia Leslie is stepping into the brand new role of Ryan Wilder, the woman who will become the new Batwoman. Like Kate Kane before her, Ryan is an out and proud Lesbian, a strong hero with a strict moral code, and one who is about to shake up the show like never before.

In advance of the Season 2 premiere on Sunday, January 17 at 8/7c, Leslie and showrunner and Executive Producer Caroline Dries helmed a Television Critics Association panel teasing what to expect from the new season, Ryan’s relationship with the other characters, and a little bit about what happened to Kate Kane.

In case you’re not totally up to speed, the first season of The CW hit introduced us to Kate Kane, Bruce Wayne’s cousin who takes up the mantle of Gotham City’s bat hero after his disappearance. We also met the other members of Team Batwoman: Mary Hamilton (Nicole Kang), Kate’s half sister, Instagram influencer, and secret medic to the poor; and Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson), a tech nerd who formerly helped Batman. On the opposite side of things — sort of — was security force for hire The Crows, led by Kate’s father, Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott), and Kate’s ex-girlfriend Sophie Turner (Meagan Tandy). Oh, and on the side of the villains? Kate’s insane sister Alice (Rachel Skarsten), and Bruce Wayne’s also insane childhood friend Tommy Elliott, who has since started wearing Bruce Wayne’s face, now played by Warren Christie.

That’s not the end of the bad guys, though. In Season 2 we’ll be meeting Safiyah Sohail (Shivani Ghai), a baddie who makes even Alice nervous, as well as Black Hood (to be cast) and murderer Victor Zsasz (Alex Morf), among many others. Sounds like Ryan will have her hands full, something that Dries felt was important. In Season 1, she noted that they felt like they needed to have a classic Batman villain to be “doing our duty” to the history of Gotham City.

Particularly with Zsasz, Dries felt that they couldn’t just stick him in the show as an Easter egg, it needed to matter for the story. He’ll show up in Episode 3, and as Dries told it that he’ll point out Ryan isn’t yet comfortable in her Batsuit, the way he is in his “own skin,” one that is carved with tally marks of his victims. He’ll ultimately drive Ryan to create her own take on the Batsuit, so she can feel comfortable in her own skin.

Black Mask, meanwhile, will lead a gang selling drugs Batwoman is tasked with taking down, and Dries teased that Ryan “has a special relationship with a member of his gang.”

Ryan, when we first meet her, is living in a van down by the river, something that was front of mind for Dries. Noting that in Season 1, she was aiming to say something about Los Angeles’ homeless problem through billionaire Kate Kane, in Season 2 she went in the opposite direction. “With Ryan, it was part of the overarching goal I had in creating a character who is nothing like Kate Kane,” Dries noted. “It just made sense to me in creating Kate’s foil, more or less, maybe Ryan came from… This part of the city.”

However, as you’d might expect, Ryan doesn’t stay in the van long. She does end up in the batsuit, something that she will make her own as the show continues.

“This suit has always represented a legacy,” Leslie noted. “It’s just this idea that is the suit, but the person also has to be worthy to carry this legacy. This is what Ryan goes through when she gets the suit — just like me, when I got this job!”

She’ll also have a brand new form of transportation: the Batmobile, something that was partially designed for Season 1 but never got to be used thanks to COVID shutting down production. “It actually worked out great that we got to introduce it as a new character in the premiere,” Dries said. “It feels a little more premiere-worthy.”

This version of the Batmobile is mostly practical, with a few CGI flourishes, and will be Ryan’s main vehicle throughout Season 2, with all the gadgets and bells and whistles it might imply.

As for how the human, non-car characters will react not just to Ryan — but to Kate’s disappearance — Dries noted that will be a big part of the series, with everyone reacting differently. That includes villain Alice, who of course has a peculiar reaction.

“That’s a huge story point this season,” Dries said, noting that Alice ended Season 1 with a big plan to take down Kate… Something that isn’t possible with Kate “Alice being Alice, she’s going to react in a total unhinged, psychotic, colorful, really amazing way… It’s going to be a real rollercoaster for her, dealing with the loss of Kate.”

Dries also said that it was overall easier to add Ryan into the bat side of the show because of the action, than the family aspects (most, if not all of the other characters are tied to Kate through family or otherwise); but she was very proud of how they all pulled it off… Including how Ryan will relate back to Kate, in a way that Dries did not want to spoil.

There’s also the real world aspects of Ryan’s introduction — as a Black, out superhero — that are vitally important to not ignore in the midst of the plot and villains. That is something that seems to always be top of mind for Leslie.

“I grew up seeing two Black superheroes… And Halle Berry played both,” Leslie said referencing Storm from X-Men and Catwoman. “I think we deserve to have representation. It’s an honor, I’m really blessed to be at the beginning of this journey for us.”

Good news for Leslie, Dries noted that though the writer’s room hasn’t changed that much from Season 1 to Season 2, she was proud of behind the scenes representation, saying that the writer’s room is 60% diverse and/or women. Added Leslie about reading scripts, though she doesn’t like to read too far ahead: “There has been no point I haven’t been represented as Black, as queer, as a woman.”

As for what happened to Kate Kane? Dries stayed relatively mum, but did note that there will be a resolution to the storyline — though she didn’t say when in the season fans will get that ending they want.

“Yes, it’s something that will resolve,” Dries said. “I appreciate what we’re asking of the audience. They know the actress who plays Kate Kane has left the show, so I don’t want people to feel that this is a big wank … I will say, as a storyteller there will be a lot of twists and turns. This will be a huge rollercoaster for all of our characters and my hope is that it feels like a very awesome, satisfying resolve.”

Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW starting January 17.

Additional reporting by Kayla Cobb.

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