Ever since she made her onscreen debut in early 2021, Ryan Wilder’s story has continued to be explored across both television and comics in some compelling ways. The second and third seasons of The CW’s Batwoman have played with Ryan’s newly-created storyline, with the most recent batch of episodes diving into the family she previously didn’t know she had. Season 3 has introduced viewers to her mother and brother, Jada Jet (Robin Givens) and Marquis Jet (Nick Creegan), but there’s still the question of the identity of her birth father, who may or may not be alive. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dries teased that the writing staff has an idea in mind — and that the character might possibly be significant enough within the lore of DC Comics to need to be “approved.”
“I think we have an idea of who he is,” Dries revealed. “I do want to explore it at some point. I don’t want to explore it right away because I felt like this season was like, ‘[Ryan] has a mom, she has a brother, and it’s like, who else does she [have]?’ It felt like it would dilute all of this and just kind be overwhelming for the character to keep finding hidden family members behind a door. So yeah, I know people are curious, I’m curious too. I’m, for Ryan, very curious. So we’ll definitely make story out of it at some point. I just don’t know when.”
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“I don’t know, to be honest with you,” Dries said of whether or not fans could currently guess the identity of Ryan’s father. “We haven’t gone down that road yet to even get to if it were kind of who we were thinking of. I think it would have to be approved by various divisions. So I can’t answer that.”
While speaking with ComicBook.com earlier this year, Leslie spoke about the dichotomy that has popped up as Ryan has discovered her family — something that would surely continue if her father were to be acknowledged.
“Season three has been so much fun and so epic, because there’s a layer that I didn’t even know, when I got cast, I would ever end up dealing with,” Leslie explained. “When I was cast, she did not have a family. So now, there are layers that I get to play with that I never thought I was going to get to play with. But it’s also very conflicting, because [Ryan] created a family and that’s the family I’ve dived into, and now all of a sudden, there’s a real family and [she doesn’t] know who [she trusts]. I think she’s confused.”
Batwoman airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
