The BATWOMAN Team Teases How Ryan Will Shake Up the Show in Season 2

When BATWOMAN returns in 2021 to The CW, it will have a new star front and center: Javicia Leslie, who is portraying Ryan Wilder. (Ruby Rose, who portrayed Kate Kane in the ARROWverse and the BATWOMAN season 1, exited the series earlier this year.)

Leslie, who is openly bisexual, is also making history as the first Black woman to portray Batwoman.

“Honestly, it feels like an honor,” she said during the show’s DC Fandome panel. “It’s funny, because I was looking on Instagram, and I was scrolling through new followers, and I saw all these rainbows in the bio…I felt like exactly what I’ve always wanted to be, which is a role model. I feel honored; I feel excited. I feel like there’s so many little Javicias that don’t have voices, little Black girls that didn’t have a voice. Little bisexual, bicurious, lesbian, gay, everything that just didn’t have voices and I feel honored to be able to be a voice for my community.”

“And then to play a character that represents my community in the same way, that’s not [as] common thing,” she continued. “It feels really powerful. And I feel like with everything that’s going on right now, this is what we need. We need to see representation, and I’m so thankful to [the producers] because this is what’s needed. Not just me—I’m looking at the entire cast of BATWOMAN, and it is representation.”

The BATWOMAN producers acknowledge they knew Leslie was right for the part instantly. “She just brings everything: intellect, emotion, heart, athleticism. Everything you know you want in your hero,” showrunner Caroline Dries said. “She had to do a really hard thing which is take a role for a script that didn’t exist yet. And she was willing to trust us with it.”

And the feeling was mutual. “When I read the character description, it was definitely me,” Leslie said. “I love the idea it’s like goofy meets badass meets a person that doesn’t like to be told what to do; a person that does not like to follow the rules…I love the fact that Ryan was just who I am, just a hot mess. And I’m really into action…this has literally been my dream. It’s so funny, because in May I did an interview and I said, ‘Well, one of my future goals and one of my biggest dreams is to become a superhero. I want to be a black superhero; you don’t get to see that that often.’ And then a month later, I become the first black Batwoman.”

The CW series will be juggling its past with its present/future when season 2 kicks off.

“We have two major stories this season as we come into season 2,” Dries teased. “The first one is where’s Kate? What happened to Kate? Is she alive, is she dead, is she missing, is she on the run, is she held captive, is she lost? These are all huge mysteries that push us in deep into the season. And all of our characters are going to have different perspectives on that, different conspiracy theories, different points of view, and it will create a lot of drama, tension, mystery, intrigue and it will be shocking and awesome and amazing.”

“And then we have…a new hero rising into Gotham,” she continued. “[Ryan]’s a new character to the world of DC. And she has a lot going against her. She was a girl who was a statistic of injustice the moment she was born. The system was not built for this person, and she will constantly battle against the system. She’s battled through it her whole life and she will continue to battle against it as Batwoman. So we’re just really, really, really excited to have Javicia playing [this] role.”

As Ryan adjusts to her new life, “it’s going to be a struggle,” Leslie acknowledged. “When you’re a part of a community that has been neglected by the system, that’s the initial community that you feel responsible for helping. And that’s what you’re going to see: you’re going to see that community of Gotham that got overlooked. And it’s funny, because a lot of Mary’s patients can be examples of that community; the community that gets overlooked by by the hospital, by the Crows and it’s a very personal thing, but that will be a huge battle.”

“When Caroline and I were talking about it, [it may be] the battle of, ‘They’re not the only ones that need help, but those are the ones that Ryan is attached to, that she really wants to be able to help,’” Leslie continued. “Just the idea that the same person that will go kick some bad guys’ ass will make sure she go feeds the cat in the alley or gives a little orphan girl a place to stay. So, just to have that crusader that’s for that part of the community, I think that that’s important and that’s really what we’re going to dive into the season.”

But, of course, Ryan will need help. Enter Kate’s closest allies.

“It’s going to be a very interesting year for Luke, because Luke doesn’t really trust a lot of people,” Camrus Johnson (Luke) said. “It took him so long to trust Batman’s cousin. So, now that she’s gone and we have this new person—obviously he’s always down for someone to keep Gotham safe. That’s what he cares most about is keeping Gotham safe, but at the end of the day, Ryan to Luke is someone from the streets and it was already so hard to trust someone that had the army experience and had the money and had all this stuff. And to suddenly like give this precious Batsuit to this new person is going to be really hard for him.”

“I think he is going to be down to work with her, but I think there’s always going to be a bit of push back,” he continued. “Especially after last season of diving into all of the dad stuff and also having Kate Kane be is sort of connect to the rest of the cast. Like he never would have met Mary or Sophie or Alice or any of these people without Kate Kane. So now that she’s not around, [he’s] having to deal with all of these new relationships [without] his main source, and also introduce this new person, that he doesn’t even know, how to do [all of this superhero stuff]. It’s going to be a lot for him.”

Mary, who is also Kate’s stepsister, will find a kindred spirit in the new Batwoman.

“I’m especially excited to see this new relationship happen in the wake of Mary dealing with [Kate’s] mysterious disappearance and how she decides to sort of take it and take it hard,” Nicole Kang (Mary) previewed. “She’s been a person who I think is always looking for family, is always looking for community, is always looking for somebody to see her, which is I think a huge source of why the clinic exists for her. There are just much deeper personal reasons for that, and I think Mary and Ryan have that in common, which is why Mary really looks to Ryan [for help], in this way.”

Sophie, Kate’s ex, “is going to have a lot on her plate,” Meagan Tandy (Sophie) teased. “There’s going to be a lot that’s going to fall upon her. She’s going to have a lot of things that she’s going to have to process and deal with and figure out. But the thing with Batwoman is she’s going to really understand the importance of why Batwoman has to stay secretive. And she’s going to appreciate that…She’s going to want her to stay masked.”

And Ryan might have an unexpected influence on Sophie, too.

“What will be fun at least writing Sophie is that Ryan, and Batwoman, [but] mostly Ryan sort of helps pull Sophie out of her shell,” Dries previewed. “And maybe we edge [her] up a little bit this season. Sophie, who plays by the books and colors within the lines…but you know now [she’s] maybe [a little more adventurous].”

Less thrilled about events will be Kate’s twin, Alice, who spent much of season 1 trying to get revenge against her family after her presumed death as a girl.

“I think Alice is just going to be peeved,” Rachel Skarsten (Alice) noted. “She has this beautiful intricate plan, the demise of her sister. And that will have been foiled. But she also is going to have a lot to worry about, because we’re introducing a new character Safiyah, who Alice had talked about in the last season. The introduction of Safiyah will be intriguing just because this is a backstory of Alice that we haven’t had the opportunity to see before.”

The absence of Kate also has the potential to change how Alice viewed her sister’s “replacement” family.

“I’m actually really excited because there was this triangle between Alice, Kate Kane, and Mary,” Kang said. “And without Kate actively in that triangle, I’m really really interested to see Mary and Alice’s relationship and where that goes. Because there’s a lot still that hasn’t been dealt with. And Kate was a buffer, of sorts, between them. And so without that buffer, you know, anything could happen.”

“I think we’d become best friends,” Skarsten joked.

Looking ahead, as Ryan evolves into Batwoman, it was important for all involved that her suit look different than Kate’s take on the character.

“Caroline [and I] were also talking about how important it is that if we’re going to have a Black Batwoman, that she needs to be a sister when she becomes Batwoman,” Leslie said. “It’s important the silhouette of her to still look like that: more of a natural texture hair and things like that.”

Dries pointed to Kate, who was out in her life, coming out as Batwoman to be true to herself in season 1, as a similar parallel to why the writers want Ryan’s Batwoman to be clearly Black.

“What Javicia and I have been talking about is how can we make sure that Ryan isn’t hiding what makes her awesome with a suit?” Dries said. “It’s going to be a little bit of an evolution; we’re going to see the suit evolve early on in the season. And Ryan is like, ‘For me to feel empowered in this thing, it needs to feel like I’m representing something that I’m fighting for.”

BATWOMAN is set to return to The CW in 2021.

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