Batwoman’s Rachel Skarsten on Returning to the DC Universe After Birds of Prey

The CW will bring Batwoman‘s origin story to life later this year, and it is enlisting a DCTV veteran to do the job. ComicBook.com was on hand for Batwoman‘s panel at the Television Critics Association press tour, where Red Alice actress Rachel Skarsten was asked about landing the role. Skarsten, who previously portrayed Dinah Lance on WB’s short-lived Birds of Prey series, was pretty enthusiastic about her return to that world.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s an incredible homecoming for me back to Warner Bros. and DC and, I guess, an incarnation of the old WB.” Skarsten revealed. “One of the things I say about this network all the time is that they foster such a wonderful idea of family within the network. And so it was really, really lovely to come back.”

“And then, of course, anyone I’ve talked to knows I’m a huge Batman fan, always have been Adam West Batman.” Skarsten added. “And so to come back to this world but in a completely different character has been a real trip.”

The Birds of Prey TV show, which ran from 2002 to 2003, saw Skarsten’s Dinah “Redmond” Lance team up with Helena Kyle/Huntress (Ashley Scott) and Barbara Gordon/Batgirl (Dina Meyer), as they attempted to save New Gotham City from its criminal underworld. The series took some liberties with Dinah, giving her precognitive and touch-telepath abilities as opposed to her iconic Canary cry.

Just based off of the trailer, it seems like Batwoman will have Skarsten’s portrayal of Alice be much more comic-accurate, with her being the lead of the notorious Wonderland gang.

“She is the big bad of the show, she plays the main antagonist,” Skarsten said in an earlier interview. “She has a very complex relationship with Batwoman, played by Ruby Rose, and she sort of teeters between sane and completely insane — which is really fun.”

“I think at this point she has an axe to grind with another character on the show who I can’t say, but it will be revealed,” Skarsten continued. “She has this sort of personal vendetta against that character, and then of course she also wants to just run Gotham and bring mayhem wherever she goes.”

Batwoman will premiere Sunday, October 6th at 8/7c on The CW.

Additional reporting by Scott Huver.