Batwoman Confirms Catwoman Exists in the Arrowverse

The third season of Batwoman has been playing with DC Comics mythos in some compelling ways, as a number of Batman villain trophies have been unleashed on Gotham City. Through the five episodes we’ve seen thus far, that has involved stories surrounding Mad Hatter, Mister Freeze, Killer Croc, and now Professor Pyg, but it seems as if they’ve only scratched the surface. This week’s episode revolved around the aforementioned Professor Pyg storyline — but it also happened to acknowledge a pretty major character in the Gotham mythos. Obviously, spoilers for Season 3, Episode 5 of Batwoman, “A Lesson From Professor Pyg”, below! Only look if you want to know!

The episode opened with Ryan Wilder / Batwoman (Javicia Leslie) and Alice (Rachel Skarsten) being sent on a new mission by Renee Montoya (Victoria Cartagena), which involved investigating a gruesome murder. It appeared as if the murder victim was strung up by a black rope object, which led Renee to speculate that it could be Catwoman’s whip. As the episode went along, we learned a bit more context clues about the Arrowverse’s version of Catwoman — she had had a romantic relationship with Batman, which led to her using some of his technology to make the fibers of her whip particularly strong. The Bat/Cat romance even provoked surprise from Alice about whether or not “heroes do that”, seemingly a reference to the controversy surrounding a sex scene between the two characters on HBO Max’s Harley Quinn.

This served as the first, very prominent mention of Catwoman in the larger Arrowverse, something that fans might not have expected years ago. It also (technically) means that the entirety of the Gotham City Sirens roster now exists in the universe, between the proto-Harley Quinn on Season 2 of Arrow, and Pamela Isley / Poison Ivy (Bridget Regan), who is set to be introduced later in this season of Batwoman. 

“So freaking epic,” series star Javicia Leslie said of the Batman villains storyline in an interview shortly after the Season 2 finale. “Like literally a lot of your epic Batman villains, we have all of their weapons and they’ve all been released into the river and people are going to find [them] and you’re going to find the effects that these weapons have on these normal Gotham citizens and then becoming like these supervillains, and it’s just going to be so much fun. I can’t wait! I’m excited because we’re about to start shooting season 3 and I can’t wait to read the scripts and to see where it goes.”

Batwoman airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.