Batwoman: Who Plays Bruce Wayne?

Batwoman‘s first season came to a close tonight, but not before delivering a jaw-dropping reveal in the episode’s final moments. The CW series has already established a pretty significant lane in the Arrowverse franchise, but its latest bit of canon might be the most surprising yet. Towards the end of the episode, fans got an unexpected introduction to one of the most iconic characters in the DC arsenal — and his reveal arguably raised more questions than it answered. Obviously, spoilers for the Batwoman season finale, “O, Mouse!” lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

Much of the episode focused on Elizabeth Kane/Alice’s (Rachel Skarsten) quest to find Kryptonite, which she recently learned can successfully puncture the Batsuit. After figuring out that a Kryptonite fragment had been returned to Lucius Fox (prior to his death) at Wayne Tower, Alice concocted a very specific plan to try to steal it — one that involved Tommy Elliot/Hush (Gabriel Mann), who has reluctantly been working with Alice for the promise of a new face.

In the episode’s final moments, Alice agreed to give Tommy the “new face” that she had been promising. As Tommy and the audience soon learned, she gave him the face of the long-absent Bruce Wayne, so he could walk into Wayne Tower and successfully steal the Kryptonite.

While the context of us seeing “Bruce’s” face is certainly unexpected, it establishes a significant piece of canon within the Arrowverse — that Earth-Prime’s version of Bruce Wayne/Batman is portrayed by Warren Christie.

If you thought you recognized Christie’s face from somewhere, you’re probably not alone. The Irish-born Canadian actor has been acting in film and television since 2001, and has accumulated a pretty eclectic filmography in the process. In the mid-2000s, Christie had multiple-episode stints on The L Word, Battlestar Galactica, and Samurai Girl. In the years since, Christie has gone on to star as Cameron Hicks in the SYFY series Alphas, Will on Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, Nick on The Village, and Jude Silva on The Resident. On the movie side of things, Christie portrayed Ben Anderson in Apollo 18, and most recently played Steve in the 2012 film This Means War.

Oddly enough, this isn’t Christie’s first foray into programming on The CW, as he portrayed Luther in the Supernatural Season 1 episode “Dead Man’s Blood”. He also played Carter Bowen, a neurosurgeon and contemporary of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) in the Arrow Season 1 episode “Legacies”.

It’s unclear exactly what the future holds for Christie’s take on Bruce Wayne, as the real Bruce has been missing in action in Gotham for years, and his “return” through Tommy’s impersonation really only seems to help prop up Alice’s storyline. Still, the confirmation of what the Arrowverse’s Batman looked like will certainly delight fans of the series.

“To introduce Bruce Wayne is so cool. I was so excited,” Skarsten told ComicBook.com of tonight’s twist. “I just feel like they cast him so perfectly. He just looks exactly like what a Bruce Wayne should look like. He played it so well. That one’s a tough one, because you’re essentially playing two characters. You’re playing one character trying to be another character.”

Batwoman will return with new episodes in January of 2021.