Light up the Bat-signal because it’s almost time to meetBatwoman’s new hero.
However, she finds the Batsuit after Kate’s mysterious disappearance.
“Batwomanshowrunner Caroline Dries tells EW about creating Ryan.
Credit: The CW; Inset: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
We don’t have that with Bruce.”
“It was shocking to me that so many people were willing to just say, ‘It’s fine.
Just put another actress in there.
The CW
We’ll forget it.
We’ll move on.’
I’m not opposed to recasting the character of Kate Kane at all.
The CW
But doing a swap out without any story motivation behind it felt really weird to me.
To me, it was asking too much of the audience.
I want it to feel all like one piece of a continuing story.
The CW
It just felt like this was the character in a lot of ways.
And play her with confidence.
She just brings in little things.
And she said, “Where was my plant while I was in prison?”
And I’m like, “Oh, actually I don’t know.”
WhenBatwomanpremiered last year, it was lauded for being the first show headline by an out superhero.
Now, this season you have the first Black woman to play Batwoman.
The responsibilities are huge.
I didn’t create Ryan Wilder to be a Black character.
And it requires, I have to say, a lot of listening.
I’m always going for the big story move, the big surprise.
Is that move maybe a trope?
Are we writing bad TV right now or bad representation?”
Sometimes I’ll feel my defenses coming up and I have to tell myself, “Relax.
We’ll find a creative solution where we’re not making the wrong move here.”
It’s exploring this other part of society that Kate didn’t have to go through.
For example, Ryan has a parole officer, who we meet in episode 1.
It’s still all rooted in the spectacle of a Gotham City TV show.
We know Victor Zsasz will be featured, and he falls on the comic book spectacle side.
And they peddle this drug called Snakebite, which is a fictional drug, the DC canon drug.
And there’s this monologue at the end of Act 3 that to me was the character.
It just embodies her passion and her conviction and her determination.
She delivered this monologue to Mary and Luke and then zipped out of there on the grappling hook.
From talking to Javicia, I know she’s doing most of her own stunts.
What does that add to the show?It adds to the realism of the show.
I was just like, “I’m all in.”
It really made it feel visceral, and you connect.
So being able to see Javicia doing all this cool stuff is really fun.
Batwomanwas entirely built around Kate Kane like she’s the one who ties almost everyone together.
We always considerBatwomana family drama, and we lost a core family member.
But also we didn’t want to lose Kate from the show.
I would still consider her very much a character on the show.
So we continue to build around that, big time.
Does opening our hearts to her mean we’re okay with saying good-bye to Kate?"
We decided to make that one of the central core conflicts among the Bat-Team.
Season 1, obviously, she was our big bad.
And what made her extra interesting was that she was our hero’s twin sister.
In season 2, that opportunity is ripped from her.
And now the question is, how will Alice deal with not having this core drive driving her?
What is Alice like when she’s untethered to an idea?
And you don’t want to let somebody like that have idle hands, more or less.
And a lot of it centers around Kate and Alice’s feelings towards Kate.
But I’m not sure how much of it will get to play out.
It’s one of those things we don’t want to mess up.
So if it unfolds naturally, great.
But if we don’t have time for it, we’re not going to cram it in.
Of course, Rachel is so fantastic.
She’s just killing it, so I’m just really excited about that storyline.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Batwomanpremieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on The CW.
