Next month’s big Arrowverse crossover “Elseworlds” will see the debut of Batwoman in The CW’s DC universe, as played by Orange is the New Black‘s Ruby Rose. Fans can’t wait to see the Gotham City heroine make her mark on our screens in her first ever live-action portrayal and, from the posters and images we’ve gotten of Rose in costume so far, she looks like she’s leaped straight out of the comics.
What we don’t know much about right now is how Rose will bring Batwoman’s personality to life. Much like Batman, Kate Kane is someone with such a severe dual identity that she’s basically two distinct characters. While speaking with EW though, Rose teased what we can expect from the Kate side of things in “Elseworlds,” confirming that she’s going to have the classic “party-loving billionaire” alter ego.
“She is more fun because she’s a billionaire, she has ladies that love her. I think, for the most part, crossover-wise, she’s swaggy. She always knew who she was, but she’s really coming into knowing who she is in the crossover, and with Batwoman as well. It’s not the first time she’s put on the suit.”
Arrowverse producer Marc Guggenheim was also on hand to explain how Batwoman herself will come across and encouraged the similarities to Batman by categorizing the character once she’s in costume as, well, a bit of a “dick.”
“She’s a lot like Batman in the sense that she’s kind of a dick,” Guggenheim jokes. “Ruby’s amazing. She brings such a different color and tone. She will interact with our heroes both as Batwoman and as Kate Kane, so you’ll see both sides of that character and that performance.”
As for her role in “Elseworlds,” Rose added that it’s a nuisance for Kate when the likes of Green Arrow, the Flash and Supergirl show up in her town when she has her own (double) life to deal with.
“Kate does not want to deal with this,” Rose said. “She has a whole other agenda, a whole other life that she’s trying to sort out right now, and these frigging superheroes come in and they’re a mess, and they need her help.”
As you surely know, the three-night crossover is something of a backdoor pilot for Rose’s own Batwoman spinoff show that’s being planned for the 2019/2020 season – that will make it the sixth DC TV show to air concurrently on The CW. It’s possible that some of the other characters introduced in “Elseworlds” will also return in the series. For instance, Cassandra Jean Amell’s Nora Fries (wife of Mr Freeze).
At this stage, however, we’re not even 100% sure which Earth Batwoman hails from, though all the evidence suggests that she’s from Supergirl‘s Earth-38, hinting that we might get some crossovers with the Girl of Steel in her own show. For now, though, all we know is that “Elseworlds” kicks off on December 9th, and we can’t wait.