Ruby Rose Just Quit ‘Batwoman’, Will be Recast For Season Two

My secret shame is that I’m addicted to The CW’s superhero soaps. I’ve seen all of them. I just finished watching Batwoman and Supergirl season finales, I’m going to watch Stargirl later today and I cannot wait for Superman and Lois next season. None of the, have been as good as the second season of Arrow, but still, I am completely plugged in.

Batwoman has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me. The CW was clearly trying to position it as a replacement for Arrow and to position Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane character as a replacement for Oliver Queen, giving her a similar dynamic with Supergirl as Oliver had with the Flash.

In a way it worked, mostly on the strength of Rose’s performance. A lot of the show was weak, as series antagonist Alice was not exactly the Joker and the supporting cast left a lot to be desired. The show started off with strong ratings for a CW show but by the end of the season was doing about as well as Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.

The second season, scheduled to start airing in January, is going to be very different as Deadline reported that Ruby Rose is leaving the series and the role of Batwoman will be recast.

“I have made the very difficult decision to not return to Batwoman next season,” Rose said in a statement “This was not a decision I made lightly as I have the utmost respect for the cast, crew and everyone involved with the show in both Vancouver and in Los Angeles.”

No one is saying why this happened, but they did say it wasn’t related to Rose sustaining an injury during filming earlier in the season. If I were to wildly speculate I would guess Rose thinks she’s a big enough star to get more money for less work.

Here’s what Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva said about the situation.

Doing a network drama is one of the hardest acting jobs, and not everyone is well equipped to handle the intensity and long hours involved. I hear Rose, whose most extensive previous TV gig was a nine-episode arc on Orange Is the New Black, was not happy, and the show’s team was not happy to a point where noone could see this going for another season. It was not a good fit, and the studio and the star opted to part ways.

Reading between the lines even a little bit, it sounds like Rose was not the easiest to work with. A lot of the other stars of these Arrowverse shows, like Caity Lotz, Candice Patton, Melissa Benoist and Katie Cassidy are frequently seen posting pictures together on social media, but Rose doesn’t seem to ever turn up in them. Now, there’s any number of explanations for that, but it does seem to imply things never really clicked in for her.

Personally, I don’t understand Warner’s strategy of holding back their most iconic characters from television. Superman was eventually allowed to appear on Supergirl and is getting his own series next season; maybe this should be the cue to pull the plug on Batwoman and have a show with a bigger name character like Batman, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern.