After months of speculation and teasing, the Batwoman series has recast the role of Kate Kane.
Following the end of Batwoman's first season, Ruby Rose announced her departure from the series. As she starred as the titular hero, that left a lot of questions about potential recasts. Instead of giving Kane a new face, the showrunners put a brand-new character under the cape and cowl, casting Javicia Leslie as the new Batwoman, Ryan Wilder.
The showrunners announced that season two would explore the mystery of what happened to Kate Kane, but it was unclear how that would work; Caroline Dries said early on that she had no intention of 'erasing' Kane from the series. With Rose no longer associated with the series, fans voiced their concerns about how it could wrap up without her being in it. Episode eight, however, gave us our answer: following the conclusion of the Safiyah storyline, the last shot of the episode shows us a heavily-bandaged woman wearing a necklace with a red gem--the same one that Kate and Alice had held onto as their last connections to each other. In other words, Kate Kane is alive, but seemingly recovering from severe burns, following her plane crash, and subsequent plastic surgery.
Wallis Day--previously known as Nyssa-Vex on Krypton--will be taking over the role of Kate Kane.
“Wallis Day is going to be playing our altered version of Kate Kane, and she’s an amazing actress,” showrunner Caroline Dries told TVLine. “I’m excited for you guys to see the journey that she endures.”
The second half of Batwoman's sophomore season will deal with learning what happened to Kate following the plane crash that supposedly took her life.
