I've seen people say that they should get Rachel Skarsten to takeover the role. Then again, they must cast to sexual orientation these days so I guess that wouldn't be possible even if she wanted.
Spoilers Batwoman - Season 1
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
I’m torn on whether I want it explained or just ignored. Could they have someone else take over the cape and cowl from Kate and write off Kate like they did with Win and Roy?
The deciding factor should be which option best serves the story and characters. Although I like to see setbacks turned into advantages, lemons turned into lemonade. When Michael O'Hare had to leave Babylon 5, it forced Straczynski to rework his story arc plans and improve a number of things about them.
Hey, crazy idea: Alice succeeds in killing Kate, and Mary (or Sophie?) takes over as Batwoman.
Calling it right now: -
Next crossover: Batwoman walks in. Everyone looks at her, then looks over at Flash...then altogether yell "Damnit Barry!"
Seriously though, my gut says that this may just kill the show. I mean how often have we ever seen the lead in a (non-sitcom/soap) show recast and it actually works? I don't mean a main character dropping out and someone else playing a replacement character, I mean they just straight up replace the person playing the title character...
And it's not like this show has a massive interconnected ensemble to take up the slack. Literally every main character on this show is defined by their relationship to Kate. Having someone else just drop into that role is going to be an utterly thankless task. Plus the havoc it's going to be trying to realign all the character chemistry.
I can't imagine it's going to do much for Ruby Roses prospects playing anything but guest roles and bit-parts in the future. You get exactly one chance to prove that you're lead material, or you're done. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but show business is rough as it is and any casting director will think twice about hiring someone that's (regardless of extenuating circumstances) already very publicly left one show in the lurch. It's not fair, but that's how it is.
ETA: part of me wonders if they'll recast only long enough to write Kate off the show and have someone else be Batwoman. Seems like less of an uphill battle and may actually have a better chance to salvage the show. Logically I can see it working with Sophie talking over, though I'm not sure the character quite has the presence or charisma for it. Miss Pennyworth might be a better choice, but then she has little to nothing to do with the rest of the cast.
Who knows though, they could get *very* lucky and find the perfect person to take over the role...I doubt it, but it's not impossible.
Next crossover: Batwoman walks in. Everyone looks at her, then looks over at Flash...then altogether yell "Damnit Barry!"
Seriously though, my gut says that this may just kill the show. I mean how often have we ever seen the lead in a (non-sitcom/soap) show recast and it actually works? I don't mean a main character dropping out and someone else playing a replacement character, I mean they just straight up replace the person playing the title character...
And it's not like this show has a massive interconnected ensemble to take up the slack. Literally every main character on this show is defined by their relationship to Kate. Having someone else just drop into that role is going to be an utterly thankless task. Plus the havoc it's going to be trying to realign all the character chemistry.
I can't imagine it's going to do much for Ruby Roses prospects playing anything but guest roles and bit-parts in the future. You get exactly one chance to prove that you're lead material, or you're done. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but show business is rough as it is and any casting director will think twice about hiring someone that's (regardless of extenuating circumstances) already very publicly left one show in the lurch. It's not fair, but that's how it is.
ETA: part of me wonders if they'll recast only long enough to write Kate off the show and have someone else be Batwoman. Seems like less of an uphill battle and may actually have a better chance to salvage the show. Logically I can see it working with Sophie talking over, though I'm not sure the character quite has the presence or charisma for it. Miss Pennyworth might be a better choice, but then she has little to nothing to do with the rest of the cast.
Who knows though, they could get *very* lucky and find the perfect person to take over the role...I doubt it, but it's not impossible.
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Definitely ignore. The situation is damned unfortunate, but trying to explain it in-story is almost certain to come off tortured and contrived. And it isn't like no character has ever been recast before.
That had me envisioning a really tall woman running around with the cape covering her face like Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
That's a shame. But of all the DC shows (Save Legends which has rotated out/in almost everybody) it could probably stand a swap the most. It'd be hard to change Barry, or Kara, or Oliver.
Timing could've sync'd up with Crisis a little better, heh.
Hope it's workload and not some awful underlying issue.
Timing could've sync'd up with Crisis a little better, heh.
Hope it's workload and not some awful underlying issue.
That's a shame. I really liked her as Batwoman. Although, if I'm being honest, I've had trouble getting back into the Arrowverse post-crisis. It all seems anticlimactic from here. The fact that Flash just had what was in my opinion it's worst season yet hasn't helped.
Yeah it’s kinda like the way I feel about Marvel films after Endgame. I am really fine if they never make another.
Ruby was the only reason I tolerated this series as long as I did. This is probably the final nail in the DC coffin for me. Flash was dire and I dropped the other shows long ago.
That is shocking! I really liked her in the role and had never seen her in anything before.
It’s a huge downer. It’s not my favorite of the DC shows but I enjoy it and her. It’s that we are in this strange limbo with tv and film production right now. A lot of great casting and new projects are being announced but hard for me to get exited because no one knows when
any of this stuff will begin or resume. But even than the hope is that what was in place before will resume in time. Not here.
ReCasting the lead, title character on television is very difficult. I suspect it was the workload. All you hear is horror stories from leads of long run tv shows on how it almost ruined their lives. Particularly action shows, series were the lead is in almost every scene.
Scott Bakula loved the role and acting challenges on Quantum Leap. But that schedule ruined his first marriage. As a result for Enterprise and NCIS - New Orleans he had it written into his contracts that filming worked around his family’s schedule.
I often wonder if some tv series would be better off with rotating leads. It’s been done before. Maverick was originally only supposed to star James Garner as Bret Maverick. But Warner Bros realized they would never be able to produce enough episodes a season with him alone. So his brother Bart Maverick was introduced played by Jack Kelly. They occasionally appeared in episodes together. But generally they each headlined their own episodes.
Or the old NBC Mystery Movie format which most famously introduced Columbo. A wheel format that rotated different detectives in the same time slot.
The current approach of these CW superhero shows rarely pleases fans. Which is to have a large team of supporting characters assisting the lead. It tends to deminish the lead and rarely are the supports allowed to grow.
Than you have the complications of the massive crossover and actors wanting to direct. Maybe have a 13 Episode season of Batwoman, rotating with Supergirl. With some special showcase episodes on Elongated Man and Martian Manhunter, etc.
EDIT to add
The best characters and casting on this show were Kate/Batwoman and Beth/Alice. They could kill off or recast anyone else and make little difference to me. There are too many characters and no one else has left a very memorable impression after one season. This could really hurt the show. Particularly with such a long break before the next season.
It’s a huge downer. It’s not my favorite of the DC shows but I enjoy it and her. It’s that we are in this strange limbo with tv and film production right now. A lot of great casting and new projects are being announced but hard for me to get exited because no one knows when
any of this stuff will begin or resume. But even than the hope is that what was in place before will resume in time. Not here.
ReCasting the lead, title character on television is very difficult. I suspect it was the workload. All you hear is horror stories from leads of long run tv shows on how it almost ruined their lives. Particularly action shows, series were the lead is in almost every scene.
Scott Bakula loved the role and acting challenges on Quantum Leap. But that schedule ruined his first marriage. As a result for Enterprise and NCIS - New Orleans he had it written into his contracts that filming worked around his family’s schedule.
I often wonder if some tv series would be better off with rotating leads. It’s been done before. Maverick was originally only supposed to star James Garner as Bret Maverick. But Warner Bros realized they would never be able to produce enough episodes a season with him alone. So his brother Bart Maverick was introduced played by Jack Kelly. They occasionally appeared in episodes together. But generally they each headlined their own episodes.
Or the old NBC Mystery Movie format which most famously introduced Columbo. A wheel format that rotated different detectives in the same time slot.
The current approach of these CW superhero shows rarely pleases fans. Which is to have a large team of supporting characters assisting the lead. It tends to deminish the lead and rarely are the supports allowed to grow.
Than you have the complications of the massive crossover and actors wanting to direct. Maybe have a 13 Episode season of Batwoman, rotating with Supergirl. With some special showcase episodes on Elongated Man and Martian Manhunter, etc.
EDIT to add
The best characters and casting on this show were Kate/Batwoman and Beth/Alice. They could kill off or recast anyone else and make little difference to me. There are too many characters and no one else has left a very memorable impression after one season. This could really hurt the show. Particularly with such a long break before the next season.
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I think I'm in the same boat. I haven't even caught up with all the shows yet.
'Flash' is dragging with two villains I can't stand, 'Legends' has been hard for me to sit through for a while and it feels like a chore at this point, and 'Supergirl' just feels off this season. Not bad, but sort of just sleep-walking like they realised their pre-Crisis plot was rubbish and have been scrambling to course correct. Basically getting some serious "late NuBSG" vibes.
'Batwoman' was the only one that actually had my interest, but even then the pacing of the season has off and there's a number of character beats and relationships that I flat out don't buy. Alice is basically carrying the show IMO.
Honestly, I think CW should seriously consider folding most of these shows into one quasi-anthology show and just call it "Justice League". You can still tell solo heroes stories, but it's not the same hero every week so the workload gets spread out among the leads.
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I don't even know how to react to this except to say that it sucks.
The advantage that the MCU has is that fans have over a year (with the exceptions of the final seasons of Cloak and Dagger, Runaways and Agents of SHIELD) for the dust to settle from their reactions to Endgame. With the Arrowverse, the story picks up as usual very next week. I'm hoping that I can pick up on the arrowverse shows next season with a fresher perspective after taking a break from them.
Hey, that's a clever idea. Taking a "wheel" approach, alternating 2-3 series in the same weekly time slot, could be a nice way to fit in more Arrowverse series in a finite number of slots. Maybe you could double up and have more than one lead hero in the same city, so the shows could share the same sets, crew, and supporting cast, basically each production team handling a pair of alternating shows. Like, maybe alternate a Flash series and an Elongated Man series in Central City, or pair off Batwoman with a Question series set in Gotham (probably Vic Sage, since the movies have Montoya).
Not quite. Columbo was actually introduced in a 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show called "Enough Rope" (with Bert Freed as Columbo), which was expanded into a 1962 stage play called Prescription: Murder (with Thomas Mitchell in the role), which was then adapted for TV in 1968 with Peter Falk debuting in the role, followed by a second TV movie, Ransom for a Dead Man in spring '71, before the mystery wheel began in fall '71.
Indeed, of the first three NBCMM series, the only brand-new one was McMillan and Wife, since McCloud had begun as part of a different, hourlong drama wheel the previous year (along with Rod Serling's Night Gallery and a couple of forgotten shows).
This is pretty sad, and while certainly unexpected, I can'y say I'm all that surprised about it. She's been roughed up pretty good the past year.
It's interesting because early this week she did a live stream with Lotz a few days after Lotz did one with Amell. Both conversations sort of danced around how brutal CW shooting schedules can be. And some of the things Lotz had said to Amell sounded like borderline abuse. I don't think it's intentionally malicious so much as the episode directors are put under a lot of pressure from the networks.
I think it's just more evidence the traditional 22 episode season needs to end.
I hope they opt for a straight recast. Honestly, if they try and come up with some silly, convoluted explanation, I might just stop watching.
It's interesting because early this week she did a live stream with Lotz a few days after Lotz did one with Amell. Both conversations sort of danced around how brutal CW shooting schedules can be. And some of the things Lotz had said to Amell sounded like borderline abuse. I don't think it's intentionally malicious so much as the episode directors are put under a lot of pressure from the networks.
I think it's just more evidence the traditional 22 episode season needs to end.
I hope they opt for a straight recast. Honestly, if they try and come up with some silly, convoluted explanation, I might just stop watching.
As for the reasons for Rose's exit...it's probably a mix of the harassment, the injuries and allergies, the fact that a stunt performer died on the job, the exhaustion of the weekly-series grind, the border-crossing location shoots in Vancouver and Chicago...all of that.
Not my place to judge, but to be grateful for what she's given us all during this year.
https://dewline.dreamwidth.org/1505356.html
Not my place to judge, but to be grateful for what she's given us all during this year.
https://dewline.dreamwidth.org/1505356.html
I seriously doubt they'll try to explain the change in actress, although they might make a joke about it at some point.