Batwoman Star Compares Series’ Cultural Impact to Black Panther

Javicia Leslie, star of the recently canceled Batwoman, has compared The CW series’ cultural impact to that of Marvel’s Black Panther movie. Leslie joined Batwoman with Season 2, replacing Ruby Rose as the titular hero and playing a new original character named Ryan Wilder. The official cancellation of Batwoman came down on April 29th, the same day DC’s Legends of Tomorrow also got canceled. Since then, fans have campaigned for Batwoman to be saved with the #SaveBatwoman hashtag on social media. The actress portrayed the first Black lesbian member of the Bat-Family, and believes the TV show can resonate with viewers in the same way the Marvel Studios movie did.

“The cultural movement that came after Black Panther; what that movie showed was how there is a space for Black superheroes and Black comics,” Leslie told Digital Spy. “And so coming on the heels of that as Batwoman, we also showed that there’s a space for it in television. There’s a space for it to exist once a week, every week, and there’s a community for it. And that community doesn’t all look like Ryan.”

She continued: “That’s what I love about Ryan. She has so many boxes that she checks. It allows the community not to have to look like her. It’s just all about her. Like, I’ve had conversations with fans that have grown up in the foster care world, and I’ve had fans tell me something else that’s very similar to Ryan that equates to their life.

“So the doors that were opened from Batwoman were really doors to show the higher-ups – the bigwigs – that there is a space for Black superheroes. There’s a space for women superheroes. There’s a space for gay superheroes. There’s a space for all of us. And let’s continue to show that diversity.”

Dedicated Batwoman fans rented out a billboard with the hopes that a streaming service like HBO Max could possibly save the series. Leslie expressed her surprise at the billboard in a tweet, and called the movement from fans “so powerful.”

A report shed some light on the reasons The CW decided to cancel both Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow, stating while The CW president Mark Pedowitz wanted to renew both shows for additional seasons, Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly axed the shows because they “no longer wanted to pay the leases on the studio space, which expired on May 1.”