Batwoman Cancelled After 3 Seasons

On Friday, April 29, 2022, fans of the Arrowverse were hit with the stunning shocker that The CW cancelled Batwoman after just three seasons on the network. In fact, they also canceled Legends of Tomorrow as well, with the axe coming after seven seasons. I was left stunned by the news, especially since I myself really enjoyed the third season to the point where I even wrote about it on this site. I still remember how excited I was when I learned about Batwoman's Arrowverse debut, which came during the "Elseworlds" crossover in 2018.

Australian actress Ruby Rose played Kate Kane, aka the titular Batwoman, during the crossover, and continued the role when the Batwoman standalone series premiered in 2019. The series cast also included Dougray Scott as Kate's father, Jacob Kane, Elizabeth Anweis as Jacob's 2nd wife (and Kate's stepmother), Catherine Hamilton, Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton, Jacob and Catherine's daughter and Kate's stepsister, Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox, Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore, and Rachel Skarsten as recurring baddie Alice, who was revealed in the end of the series pilot as Kate's believed-to-be-deceased twin sister Beth Kane.

After Season One ended, however, Ruby Rose surprisingly announced that she would be leaving the series, with Rose herself stating that she was pushed out because she refused to deal with working in an unsafe environment. She also stated that Dougray Scott was abusive to women on the set, and the show's higher-ups gave false statements regarding Rose's injuries.

Season Two began on January 17, 2021, and the opener introduced Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, who would take over as the new Batwoman. Prior to joining the series, Leslie recurred on MacGyver as Jesse Colton, a member of the bounty hunting Colton family, and she also was part of the cast of another CBS series, God Friended Me. Regarding the fate of Kate Kane, she was originally written off as having been in a plane crash, with weeks of episodes suggesting that Kate was actually killed in the crash. As we would learn later in the season, that was not the case.

The episode, "Survived Much Worse," began the revelation that Kate Kane had survived the crash, and it was cemented in the following episode, "Rule #1." Kate had been held by the season's big bad, Roman Sionis (Black Mask), who (with the help of hypnotherapist Evelyn "Enigma" Rhyme) took out Kate's memories and molded her into his late daughter, Circe Sionis. As a result, Kate turned heel in her surprise return and served as a recurring villainess for the remainder of Season 2, which included my favorite moment from Kate's villainous run--her fight with the current Batwoman in the season finale. It was a legendary moment in my view, because it was one of my favorite types of battles: current hero vs fallen hero--Ryan Wilder, who was holding the Batwoman mantle, fighting against the heel-turned Kate Kane, the original Batwoman. The battle ended with Kate being cured from being under Roman's control, and she later left Gotham to search for her cousin, Bruce Wayne.

British actress Wallis Day appeared in six episodes of Season 2 (including the finale) as the evil Kate Kane, aka Circe Sionis. Day's acting career began with recurring on the British soap, Hollyoaks, and she also appeared on The Royals and Krypton, and in regards to her performance as Kate, Day was amazing. She portrayed Kate/Circe's deranged personality very well, but she really shined in the scenes where she pretended to be Kate and covered up her villainous persona in the tail end of the season.

The third and eventual final season premiered on October 13, 2021, and was moved to Wednesdays at 9PM after two seasons on the Sunday night lineup. The centerpiece of Season 3 was Poison Ivy, as the vines started appearing in the final scene of Season 2, and again during the third season. We would see one of the vines get to Mary, leading to the events in the episode, "How Does Your Garden Grow?," where it was revealed that Mary had been infected by the vines and had been copying attacks committed by Poison Ivy. Mary denies everything, but once the sunlight hit her, she displayed green eyes and attacked Luke before being freed by Alice.

Mary began to embrace her sudden heel turn in the episode's climax, as she accused Ryan and others of ignoring her for so long, and her villainous transformation was completed in the end of "Pick Your Poison," as she donned a Poison Ivy outfit and formed a kinship with Alice. We would see an amazing arc that gave us Bridget Regan as the OG Poison Ivy, who used "Poison Mary" in an attempt continue her years-old plan to destroy the Gotham Dam, only to be stopped in time by Batwoman, which also saw Mary finally returned to normal, but carrying the immense guilt of her actions in her Poison persona. The season also saw another foe in the form of Marquis Jet, who took on the Joker gimmick, with Marquis' appearance being part of Ryan's discovery that her birth mother, prominent businesswoman Jada Jet, had been alive all this time.

The season (now series) finale ended with a possible new threat hitting Gotham, which left viewers believing that we would get a fourth season, but it would not be the case. I really loved the Batwoman series; despite it's short run, it delivered a lot of amazing moments and memories, the best one being the "Poison Mary" arc. This is the Arrowverse, so there is a chance we may see Javicia Leslie donning the suit on another of their shows in a cameo appearance; she did appear during The Flash's recent five-episode arc in 2021.

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