BATWOMAN: Javicia Leslie cast as Gotham’s New Female Caped Crusader for The CW TV Series

Javicia Leslie cast as the New Batwoman

The CW has cast Javicia Leslie as the new Batwoman for DC Comics television show. Javicia Leslie will not be playing Kate Kane, who was previously portrayed by Ruby Rose before exiting the role at the end of Season One, but a new character named Ryan Wilder.

Wilder is described as “likable, messy, a little goofy and untamed. She’s also nothing like Kate Kane, the woman who wore the Batsuit before her. With no one in her life to keep her on track, Ryan spent years as a drug-runner, dodging the GCPD and masking her pain with bad habits. Today Ryan lives in her van with her plant. A girl who would steal milk for an alley cat and also could kill you with her bare hands, Ryan is the most dangerous type of fighter: highly skilled and wildly undisciplined. An out lesbian. Athletic. Raw. Passionate. Fallible. And very much not your stereotypical All-American hero.”

Leslie had this to say about her casting:

“I am extremely proud to be the first Black actress to play the iconic role of Batwoman on television, and as a bisexual woman, I am honored to join this groundbreaking show which has been such a trailblazer for the LGBTQ+ community”

Batwoman Executive Producer Caroline Dries had this to say about Ryan Wilder’s character:

“I’m inventing a whole new character who in her past was inspired by Batwoman, so she will take on the mantle and is completely maybe not the right person at the time to be doing it, so that’s what makes it fun.”

Dries added that “rebooting Batwoman as a different character allows the show to ‘respect everything that Ruby put into the Kate Kane character’ and ‘helps the audience a little bit too, that we are not asking them to not address the elephant in the room.’

Javicia Leslie’s casting is sure to raise some eyebrows but what do you think of Leslie as the new Batwoman?

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