Posted in: Batwoman, CW, Preview, TV | Tagged: arrowverse, batwoman, Caroline Dries, cw, Javicia Leslie, preview, season 3

Batwoman: Javicia Leslie, Caroline Dries Discuss Season 3 Implications

By the time the dust settled on the second season finale of The CW's Batwoman, the status quo had dramatically changed. Kate Kane (Wallis Day) is heading off to search for Bruce Wayne while Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) is off to Metropolis to await trial. Meanwhile, Alice (Rachel Skarsten) is in Arkham, but now before hitting Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie) with a mom-related shocker. And then there's the matter of those villains' weapons that are on the loose (like Penguin's umbrella, Mad Hatter's hat, and that interesting ivy…), and what they could mean for Wilder's one-and-only Batwoman, Luke aka Batwing (Camrus Johnson), and Mary (Nicole Kang) going forward. So with all of that to unpack, series showrunner & EP Caroline Dries and Leslie spoke with EW about a number of threads that were either tied up in the second season finale or left dangling for the next season. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Dries on Writing Jacob Off as End of Crows Storyline: "The character obviously had a really intense storyline. The story was just lending itself to wrapping up the Crows because we took such a hard stance against police brutality this season and really used the Crows to represent the metaphor of that. For us, the story could really only end to Ryan's satisfaction [if the Crows were] shut down completely. To us, there was no version of the Crows that could exist that felt okay; that felt like a compromise.

Once we kind of made that decision – and obviously Kate isn't staying on the show – this character of Jacob had sort of run its course, for better or for worse, through that storyline. So it worked out that it was mutual [with Scott]. We ended up being able to really write to a good ending for Jacob, just kind of knowing in advance that's what we were going to do. I'm very pleased with how that storyline worked out for him. It allowed us to give Dougray some really rich stuff toward the end."

Dries on The Implication of Those "Batman Trophies" Getting Loose: "Obviously it's a pretty intense cliffhanger. The tease we're making the audience is, 'These are loose out in the wild.' So anyone can literally come and pick them up. So it will be a combination of people who come and pick them up and the villains themselves, and derivatives of those villains. So Batwoman definitely has a huge problem next season." And it appears DC is on board with their plans from the business side of things, with Dries adding, "DC was so awesome about it because we're always looking, and as are they, for new ways of showing canon characters, and some of these characters have been done so many times that we're always looking for that new angle. In leading with the weapon first, which is always a big part of the rogues, it allows us way more freedom to kind of do something that we haven't seen before. There weren't really any obstacles."

Dries on Accusations That Season 2 Lacked Lesbian Intimacy: "One sort of thing that's been coming up on Twitter a lot [is] the lack of lesbian intimacy on the show this season. We were very happy to be able to get Sophie and Kate their kiss in the finale. I was thinking about that because I felt a little bit like, 'Oh, did we not deliver on the lesbian storyline for Batwoman this season?' And I remembered where we were at the beginning of the season. Our show started before any of the other [Arrowverse] shows, and we were still under the most rigid rules for COVID. So by the time Ryan's love story evolves to friendship with Angelique [Bevin Bru], that's when the rules opened up slightly and we had more clarify on what was allowed with COVID. [So that's] when we could pursue a love story, which is what we ended up doing with Alice. But it made me think back on why we made the decisions we did, and we were so early on in the beginnings of how to film in a pandemic that we were never able to put Ryan in a situation, so we wrote around putting her in a situation where she could be intimate with Angelique. That's like one of the main reasons I did the show: When I turn on TV, I want to see a lesbian love story. So I just had to ask myself, "How did we let this happen?" And then I remembered, we were literally the first show that went back, so all of our stuff was done earlier than any of the other shows that might've been able to have more intimate scenes."

Leslie on What Ryan's Mother Returning Could Mean: "I think I always had a feeling when we started this season that we never addressed Ryan's biological parents and that would always end up being something that gets addressed in a very tricky Gotham way. Now that we know that there is a possibility or maybe just it is the truth that Ryan's mother, her biological mother is still alive, I just am so excited for season 3 because this is just a whole [new] world that we'll be able to enter." Understandably, Ryan has some questions she would need her not-as-dead-as-she-thought mother to answer. "If I had to even say how I would feel, the first thing I would want to know is, 'Why did you give me up?'. So, I think that there's always going to be that thought in the back of Ryan's head, but I think that to know that there's any person that she's blood related to still alive that she could find, I think it would be very important to her. I think that her having a mom, a mother-daughter relationship with someone is very important for Ryan. So, I know that that's probably going to be a huge part of her focus for next season, figuring out if Alice is lying. And if Alice is telling the truth, then finding out where her mother is."

Leslie's Excited for What Those "Batman Trophies" Could Mean: "So freaking epic! Like literally a lot of your epic Batman villains, we have all of their weapons and they've all been released into the river and people are going to find [them] and you're going to find the effects that these weapons have on these normal Gotham citizens and then becoming like these supervillains, and it's just going to be so much fun. I can't wait! I'm excited because we're about to start shooting season 3 and I can't wait to read the scripts and to see where it goes."

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