The CW’s Arrowverse faced a major setback recently when Ruby Rose abruptly quit Batwoman after just one season, but the show quickly regrouped following her departure, with the creative team deciding not to recast the role of Kate Kane and instead have a brand new character assume the mantle of the costume vigilante.
While Rose hasn’t gone into specifics about why she decided to walk away from the part, there’s nonetheless been speculation that the actress was becoming increasingly difficult to work with and found it tough to keep up with the physical demands of such an action-heavy show, and there’s even been rumors that she’d be more than open to the idea of playing Batwoman again on the big screen as part of the DCEU.
Even though ratings had been steadily declining throughout the first run of episodes, with viewership between the first and last installments down by well over 50%, fans were still invested enough in Batwoman to voice their disappointment that Rose would no longer be suiting up as Gotham City’s other costumed vigilante.
It looks like her exit may have also created a huge plot hole though following the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event, after The Monitor pretty much told her she was one of only seven people with the power to save the multiverse. This was clearly designed to set Kate Kane up as one of the Arrowverse’s major players going forward, but now all of that build-up and exposition is meaningless thanks to the imminent recasting.
Obviously, the Arrowverse isn’t defined by things such as logic and common sense, but it must be a source of frustration for the brains behind the shared universe that they’d invested so much time and effort into building up Rose’s character, only for her to walk away after 20 episodes and leave them scrambling to retcon her involvement in Batwoman already.
