Batwoman began its third season on Wednesday and looks set to be a true test of Javicia Leslie’s Ryan Wilder. Both actor and character had big shoes to fill when taking over from Ruby Rose/Kate Kane, but most fans agree she’s made the role her own and brought some exciting new energy to the CW’s Arrowverse.
Now, courtesy of a new trailer at the DC FanDome, we have a better of what she’ll be facing over the coming weeks and months.
Much of this will result from the events of the Season 2 finale, which saw a number of key artefacts relating to Gotham’s villains washing up in Gotham. These are soon going to be used on the streets, amping up the capabilities of the city’s criminals, and making them more than a match for the Bat-family.
Leslie teased how this would go in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying it’s going be:
“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.”
We’ve already gotten our first taste of this formula in season opener ‘Mad as a Hatter’, which saw the Mad Hatter’s mind-controlling hat fall into some particularly creepy hands. It was a fun ride and bodes well for future episodes focusing on specific villains.
Of particular interest will be Bridget Regan’s Poison Ivy, with showrunner Caroline Dries confirming that she’ll play a major role going forward:
“I’m super excited about the Poison Ivy storyline. There’s a huge facet of it that we haven’t revealed to the press that will be really fun for the audience to participate in. We do a combination of staying true to the Poison Ivy canon and what we normally do, which is put our own spin on it. It’s a major story arc of the season, and we make it really really hard on Batwoman.”
Beyond that, we’re getting a smattering of new characters, some more development of Luke Fox/Batwing and Alice teaming up with Batwoman/Javicia Leslie. If you’re a fan of all things Gotham this is required watching.
Batwoman airs on The CW Wednesdays at 9/8c