Batwoman: 5 ways to explain Kate Kane’s recasting in-show

Batwoman -- "If You Believe In Me, I'll Believe In You" -- Image Number: BWN118a_0335b -- Pictured: Ruby Rose as Kate Kane -- Photo: Katie Yu/The CW -- © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
Batwoman -- "If You Believe In Me, I'll Believe In You" -- Image Number: BWN118a_0335b -- Pictured: Ruby Rose as Kate Kane -- Photo: Katie Yu/The CW -- © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved. /
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Batwoman, Ruby Rose, Arrowverse
Ruby Rose as Kate Kane/Batwoman in Batwoman — “If You Believe In Me, I’ll Believe In You” — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW /

In light of Ruby Rose leaving the series, we look at how the Arrowverse might explain away why the Batwoman will look completely different.

Ruby Rose’s announcement that she wouldn’t reprise her role as Kate Kane in Batwoman came out of nowhere like her caped crusading persona. Thus far, there’s been no official explanation for her departure, though rumors claim that Rose was unhappy with the show’s demanding production schedule.

The CW series, about the Scarlet Knight taking over her cousin’s crime-fighting duties after his mysterious absence, will still continue for a second season, however, but with a different actress playing the role.

That’s bound to cause all sorts of chaos. It’s one thing for the leading actress to depart a somewhat successful show after it’s first season (Batwoman is The CW’s fourth highest rated series for 2019-2020). It’s another to recast someone else and say that person is the playing same character as the one who just left.

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Comic book fans, being more attentive to minute details than most, will demand some kind of canonical explanation for the switch. After all, it’s not like Doctor Who in which replacing the titular role is built into the series itself. This requires a little creativity.

So as a purely speculative exercise, we’re going to look at the five possible ways that Batwoman could explain why Kate Kane no longer looks like Ruby Rose.

Some of these “solutions” will likely be more outlandish than others. At the same time, all of these could, given the nature of the series itself, could be plausible. So let’s start with…