Originally Posted by
bat39
This rumor about a new character is seriously disappointing, if true. This is the kind of move you could maybe consider when you've done five seasons of a show...not ONE season! Would anyone have been okay with Flash Season 2 starting with Wally West suddenly replacing Barry Allen? Or Arrow Season 2 starting with Diggle replacing Oliver Queen?
I really don't understand the reason for not just doing a recast. Its not even like Ruby Rose (as great as she was in the role IMO) has played Batwoman forever and is now 'owns' the role in a way that makes a recast impossible. She's not RDJ or Hugh Jackman. Or even Stephen Amell for that matter.
Frankly, this decision (again, if its true) would be a bit demeaning to Batwoman as a character. I mean, you wouldn't turn Batman into, I dunno, some random new dude named Tom Weston, just because the last actor playing Bruce Wayne quit. You'd recast Bruce Wayne in a jiffy, because Batman IS Bruce Wayne (well, there are other Batmen too, but you get what I mean). Why isn't Kate Kane accorded the same respect?
Then there's the insistence that the next actress and the character will be from the LGBTQ community. So is Batwoman just a mantle that can be worn by any lesbian? Is her being a lesbian the one defining trait of the mantle, over and above the actual character of Kate Kane, her relationships, and her story so far? That's pretty insulting, if you really think about it.
As an aside, if they DO insist on a new character taking the mantle, I think the one character other than Kate who truly deserves the mantle is Kathy Kane, the original comic-book Batwoman. I've always hoped they introduce her on the show, and while this isn't ideal, it could work.
Kathy would just be a few years older than Kate...the much younger widow of one of Kate's uncles. She's a bit of an adventurer, traveling the globe participating in extreme sports, expeditions and what-not (though we gradually learn she's been involved in covert ops and stuff of that nature - the whole Spyral backstory from the comics comes into play here). She returns to Gotham for some reason, and ends up taking on the Batwoman mantle initially as a cover for some other mission, but then decides to stick around once she realizes who the original Batwoman was and the fact that Kate is gone.
Kathy wouldn't be a lesbian of course (though her being bi could work). And they could introduce a backstory of her having a past romance with Bruce, and knowing his identity, as a nod to the comics.