Titans season 3: Barbara Gordon has been cast on the DC show
By Monita Mohan
Commissioner Barbara Gordon will be reporting for duty. Titans Season 3 has found its newest cast member in Savannah Welch.
Titans season 3 has cast its Barbara Gordon. Or rather, Commissioner Barbara Gordon. As per Variety’s exclusive report, the showrunners of the former DC Universe show have found their former Batgirl in Savannah Welch. The actor, musician, and disability community spokesperson is the newest actor to play a version of Batgirl, after Yvonne Craig, Alicia Silverstone, and Dina Meyer.
Titans season 3 will be streaming on HBO Max, but the release date has yet to be decided. Welch’s casting comes on the heels of the announcement that the fan-favorite character will be the latest DC Comics hero to join the show.
Titans season 3: Who is Barbara Gordon?
Introduced in comics and on-screen in 1967, Barbara Gordon is Commissioner Jim Gordon’s daughter, who secretly adopts the moniker of Batgirl. She becomes a superhero in her own right before the events of The Killing Joke change her life.
After the Joker shoots Barbara through the spine, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down, she takes on the new role of Oracle, becoming a valuable member of Batman’s team, the Birds of Prey, and the Titans.
With Titans season 3 moving to Gotham City, it appears that the show will be leveraging many elements from that graphic novel. According to Variety’s report, in the upcoming season, Barbara is no longer Batgirl after being shot by the Joker. The report suggests that Commissioner Barbara Gordon uses a wheelchair and has a tetchy relationship with Bruce Wayne.
This is a departure from most comic book runs — Barbara certainly doesn’t always agree with Bruce’s ways, but she has been known to fight his corner, sometimes even against his own sons.
The arrival of Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) in Gotham will be ruffling some feathers. The two characters have had an on-again-off-again relationship in the comics for years.
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It was initially unclear whether Barbara and Dick’s relationship troubles stem from former romantic entanglements, or if they have differing ideologies, but Variety’s report mentions the pair will be “rekindling their romance”. That spells doom for all fans of the Dick/Kory (Starfire) relationship (at least for now).
Titans may not be the most accomplished comic book show around, but the showrunners have tried to be more inclusive than most genre shows in the past. Their main cast is racially-diverse, and they had also cast Deaf, trans actor Chella Man as Jericho. With Welch’s casting, they are adding another disabled actor to their roster and giving some much-needed representation for the disabled community.
Barbara Gordon, especially as Oracle, was a rarity as a disabled superhero, and it’s a fantastic move by Titans to cast someone from the community for the role.
Titans Season 3 will be streaming on HBO Max.
Which Batgirl storylines would you like to see in Titans Season 3? Let us know in the comments.