Although CW Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries has assured fans that the next season of the show will address the lead character’s disappearance, Batwoman season 2 needs to get over Kate Kane fast and focus on their new Batwoman. When Ruby Rose announced her departure in May 2020 producers decided not to recast and brought God Friended Me‘s Javicia Leslie on board to play the streetwise Ryan Wilder to don the cape and cowl. To entice audiences with the show’s new direction, Batwoman needs to efficiently transition away from Kate’s story without disregarding how that story impacted Gotham and the people in Kate’s life.
Kate Kane reluctantly put on the Batsuit to become Batwoman early in season 1 and spent much of that season in pursuit of the mad Alice, hoping to prove that the villain wasn’t her long-lost sister. Despite being labeled a vigilante by her father, Jacob, leader of the private security agency the Crows, Kate continued to match wits with Alice and a small variety of DC comic villains from the Bat-Family including Tommy Elliott as HUSH. Much of her time and efforts were driven by a need to bring closure to her family. She didn’t anticipate Batwoman becoming a symbol of hope and justice for a beleaguered Gotham City. Her heroism took a heavy toll on Kate’s psyche putting her in a bad place by the end of Batwoman’s COVID-shortened first season. By then, Kate was just beginning to realize that while she needed Batwoman for personal reasons, Gotham needed Batwoman to be something more.
While Kate’s primary focus on becoming Batwoman was purely personal, Ryan Wilder’s Batwoman is reported to be more concerned with fighting a corrupt system and protecting her community. Ryan’s background and her street-honed survival instincts should give her an advantage in perspective on how to help Gotham. Lucas and Mary will learn quickly in season 2 that even though they are concerned about the missing Kate, Batwoman cannot disappear as well. While Kate Kane was Batwoman, Batwoman has become something much more than Kate Kane and obsessing too much on Kane’s fate will be to the show’s detriment. Batwoman has become someone Gotham needs and they need someone to carry on her legacy, to wear the mask and cape, to be the symbol. Enter Ryan Wilder with the potential to not only be the perfect candidate to keep Batwoman alive but to move the show past Kate Kane.
The transition from Kate to Ryan also presents the perfect opportunity to further develop Luke and Mary’s characters. Their guilt at not recognizing the toll wearing the cape took on Kate will compel them to vow to become better back-ups for Ryan Wilder as she becomes Batwoman. It’s also a great opportunity for Luke to finally step into his own superhero persona, Batwing as was teased in season 1, while giving Mary, who was easily one of the breakout characters of the first season, a bigger role on the Bat-team. The show could even write into Ryan’s backstory that she and Mary crossed paths before at the latter’s clinic.
Having Batwoman season 2 move on quickly from Kate Kane could also prove advantageous for one of the bigger season finale twists. While the fate of Kate Kane will always rest heavily on everyone’s mind, having someone other than a Kane wearing the mask could favorably play into Alice’s warped plan of having Tommy Elliott’s Hush, with the new face she gave him, impersonating a returning Bruce Wayne. Ryan’s new Batwoman won’t identify him as a phony as easily as Kate might have. Ryan Wilder’s arrival brings the chance for numerous storytelling twists in the second season, and the success of the sophomore outing will be decided on how efficiently the show balances embracing its future and moving away from its past.
