When the shocking news arrived that Ruby Rose was vacating Batwoman after just one season, the big question on fans’ lips was: who’s going to take over as Kate Kane? Then we found out that they weren’t recasting the character but writing her out and introducing a brand new individual to don the cape and cowl. The big question then became: how the heck are they going to get rid of the show’s protagonist off-screen?
Well, we may now know thanks to some alleged leaked plot details. The Direct has shared information from insider Daniel Richtman that claims producers are going to go with the simplest option – Kate Kane will be killed off in season 2. That’s all that’s known at the moment, so we don’t know whether this tragic fate will befall the heroine in between the seasons or if they’ll somehow have it happen without Rose’s involvement in the first episode.
Either way, this report also tells us how Kate’s replacement will enter the fray. It’s said that Ryan Wilder, as per a previously leaked casting call, will have a personal vendetta against none other than Dr. Jonathan Crane AKA Scarecrow. The famed Batman villain murdered her mother and Ryan will somehow steal the late Batwoman’s suit in a bid to get revenge. So yes, Scarecrow will show up in the series’ sophomore run.
Of course, Crane was already referenced in season 1, as a colleague of August Cartwright, the man who kidnapped Kate’s sister Beth AKA Alice. Having Scarecrow as the killer of Ryan’s mother creates a neat mirror between the two characters’ origins, then. And, of course, Kate killed Cartwright. So, with her hatred of Scarecrow, the show could explore Ryan avoiding making the same mistake as her forebear and not giving into her need for vengeance.
Batwoman fans are uniformly against the notion of killing off Kate Kane and replacing her with another heroine, but if there’s no way they’re going to go back on this, then throwing another iconic villain into the mix should soften the blow to an extent.