Following on the heels of yesterday’s news that Batwoman had cast celebrity pundit Rachel Maddow in the role of Gotham City media personality Vesper Fairchild, the series’ cast is expanding again. Ahead of tomorrow, which will see both the series’ first New York Comic Con appearance and the premiere of Batwoman at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, producers have announced that Sebastian Roche of Man in the High Castle and The Vampire Diaries fame has joined the cast, in the recurring role of Dr. Campbell. The character does not have an immediately-obvious comic book corollary, although there was a Donald Campbell, who was a minor enemy of the Gotham-based female antihero The Huntress, played in the Arrowverse by Jessica deGouw (and on an alternate Earth by Ashley Scott).
Few details are known about his character. Per Deadline, Campbell is one of Gotham’s most well-respected plastic surgeons and philanthropists. One has to wonder whether the presence of a plastic surgeon in a key role in a Gotham-based show might hint at some Two-Face involvement.
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Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Gotham is a city in despair, the Gotham City Police Department have been overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm by kidnapping his best Crow officer – and Kate’s ex-girlfriend – Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy). Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane (Elizabeth Anweis), who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate –– the daughter he still has –– at a distance. But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes –– a vigilante.
With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary (Nicole Kang), and the crafty Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson), the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice (Rachel Skarsten), who’s always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. The episode was written by Caroline Dries and directed by Marcos Siega.
Batwoman premieres on October 6 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
