‘Batwoman’ Co-Creator Greg Rucka Responds to Ruby Rose Casting

As fans lost their collective minds — in good ways and bad — over the casting of John Wick Chapter Two actress Ruby Rose in the role of Kate Kane/Batwoman in this year’s Arrowverse crossover, longtime Batwoman writer Greg Rucka, credited as one of the character’s co-creators, sounded off on Twitter as well.

Rucka, who had written Kate in her own title as well as in Detective Comics before leaving DC for a time, was generally supportive — although he wasn’t sure anybody would notice.

“Not that anyone asked me, nor does it matter, but I quite like Ruby Rose,” Rucka tweeted earlier today. “Her Kate will be down to what the writers do.”

Earlier today, The CW announced that Ruby Rose had been tapped to play Kate Kane/Batwoman for the crossover and the network’s planned Batwoman. Her character will debut in the upcoming Arrowverse crossover event on the network in December.

Rose’s casting comes after recent reports indicated that the network had made a priority of casting an openly gay actress to play Batwoman. Rose, who is herself openly gay, may be best known to audiences for her role on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. She has also appeared in Pitch Perfect 3, and will next appear in The Meg.

In comics, Batwoman is the first major DC superhero to be openly gay. On TV, she follows in the footsteps of Thunder (Nafessa Williams) on The CW’s own Black Lightning.

First introduced in 1956, Batwoman largely disappeared from continuity until 2006, when she was reintroduced and reinvented. An openly gay Jewish woman, Batwoman has a military background and has proven herself every bit Batman’s equal on the pages of comic books. She’s even served as the primary featured hero for Gotham City in Detective Comics while Batman wasnt in the picture.

The new-look Batwoman debuted in 52, the weekly series co-written by DC’s biggest superstars, and so none of them is credited as the writer behind Kate Kane — but it has never been a secret that it was Rucka who wrote most of the material featuring the character even in 52 before he took her back to Gotham.

In The CW series, which the network said is in the early stages of development, the character appears to be leaning heavily into that comic book representation. In a casting description for Batwoman, Kate Kane is described as proudly openly gay and having once aspired to have a successful military career, dreams that were snuffed when she was kicked out of West Point for coming out. As in comics, television’s Batwoman will also have to face many of her own personal demons even as she suits up as Gotham’s symbol of hope and justice.

Rose’s casting comes on the heels of Monday’s statement by network president Mark Pedowitz that the network anticipates a pilot for the Batwoman series as early as midseason.

“We’ll do a pilot for midseason, whether it goes to series, I cannot tell you,” Pedowitz said at the TCA summer press tour. “We have five [DC shows] on the air and just added a sixth night.”

Caroline Dries, who served as a writer and producer on The Vampire Diaries, is set to be the executive producer on Batwoman. Joining Dries in the EP role are Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Geoff Johns, the latter of which recently stepped down as the head of DC Entertainment. Berlanti and Schechter will produce via Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. If picked up, the series would air in the 2019 TV season.

Fans will get their first look at Rose as Batwoman in the big Arrowverse crossover event this December on The CW.

What do you think about Ruby Rose‘s casting? Let us know in the comments below!