During Batwoman‘s presentation at San Diego Comic-Con back in July fans got surprising news that The CW series would see the origin story of major Batman villain Tommy Elliot, aka Hush. Now, ahead of the series debut on Sunday night we finally know who will be playing Tommy as well as are getting our first look at the character and some new tidbits about what his backstory will be for the series.
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As reported by TV Line, Batwoman has cast Revenge alum Gabriel Mann as Thomas “Tommy” Elliot. The character will debut in Batwoman‘s third episode and is described as “a childhood friend of Kate’s AWOL cousin, Bruce Wayne, who grew up to become a real estate mogul boasting easy charm and a friendly smile.” However, Tommy also has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and threatens to put Kate Kane’s (Ruby Rose) secret identity as Batwoman at risk.
It’s a background that’s a little different from the character’s DC Comics origins. In comics, Tommy Elliot/Hush was a doctor, not a real estate mogul. He was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne’s, but he went down a far darker path than Bruce and was ultimately revealed to have tried to kill both of own parents in order to gain their wealth but wasn’t successful at that. When Bruce’s parents were murdered, Tommy became resentful of Bruce and his irrational grudge against his former friend only grew over time.
It’s not clear exactly how Batwoman‘s take on Tommy Elliot will fit into the series nor is it clear exactly how he becomes the villain Hush — it was noted at San Diego Comic-Con that his origin story will develop over the course of the show’s first season.
In addition to the announcement of Mann’s casting as Tommy Elliot, The CW also announced that Rachel Matthews will be guest starring as Magpie in Batwoman‘s fourth episode. Like with Tommy Elliot, it’s unclear exactly how Magpie will fit into the story with the series expected to bring new villains into the Arrowverse as well as establish Batwoman in a new, unique way.
“It’s actually really fun,” executive producer Sarah Schechter told reporters in August of the series’ structure. “I kind of wish we could do it on every show because you get to kind of just be with the character and not have to have all of the explanation and introduce the world and you really just get, sort of, a flavor of who they are. Then you can kind of go back in and fill it. I wish we could just honestly, it’s a great way to do it because it’s less pressure than ‘Here’s the world. Here’s all the people. We are going to tell you everything you need to know in 42 minutes and go.’”
“So it was actually a great advantage to be able to do that, I think, in this show because then it also meant, when we did the pilot, we could really because I think this cast is incredible and it was fun to be able to spend time with everyone,” Schechter continued. “And I think, if we hadn’t known Kate a little bit, it would be harder to have the bandwidth to do that.”
What do you think about the first look at Batwoman‘s Tommy Elliot? Let us know in the comments below.
Batwoman will premiere Sunday, October 6th at 8/7c on The CW.
