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Ruby Rose to play Batwoman for The CW's Arrowverse

The actress will join The CW's DC shows as an openly lesbian protector of Gotham City.

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Caitlin Petrakovitz studies the Marvel Cinematic Universe like it's a course in school, with an emphasis on the Infinity Saga years. As an audience expert, she rarely writes but when she does it's most certainly about Star Trek, Marvel, DC, Westworld, San Diego Comic-Con and great streaming properties. Or soccer, that's a thing she loves, too.
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Caitlin Petrakovitz
2 min read
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Ruby Rose (left) will play Batwoman Kate Kane for The CW's Arrowverse shows, including her own series that's in the works.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images and DC Comics

Actress Ruby Rose will play Batwoman for The CW's Arrowverse shows.

The news first reported by The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday has been retweeted by the actress herself. Rose will first appear in December's DC crossover event between its current Arrowverse shows: including Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl.

A standalone TV series focusing on Batwoman with Rose as the lead is also in development with The Vampire Diaries' Caroline Dries writing the script, reports THR. (Disclosure: The CW is a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS, which also publishes CNET.)

Rose quickly confirmed the casting on Twitter, proclaiming in tweet replies her excitement to play Kate Kane, an openly lesbian superhero who helps protect Gotham City.

Batwoman's appearance in the Arrowverse was first teased at the Upfronts last spring. The network was actively seeking to cast a lesbian of any ethnicity for the role as recently as Comic-Con , before ultimately deciding on Rose.

The casting description for Kate Kane is here, giving us our most complete look at the newest member of the Arrowverse:

"Kate is fully aware of how bad-ass she is whenever she enters a room, even though she prefers to put a smile on your face. Young Ms. Kane is physically and intellectually confident while being a woman who is proud to be openly gay. However, Kate still deals with her inner demons that go back to her history with her dad. Their relationship is quite complicated as she struggles to get praise from him. She once aspired to have a successful military career, but those dreams sadly came to an end as she was kicked out of West Point once she came out of the closet. But that didn't stop her from becoming the crime-fighting vigilante known as Batwoman. Striking fear into the criminals she fights, Kate is someone who must also fight the complications of living a double life, both as a citizen and hero of Gotham. While she has her shield up when fighting criminals, she lets herself be vulnerable when dating women."

Rose has previously starred on Netflix's Orange is the New Black and will be in the shark disaster film The Meg, releasing in the US on Aug. 10.

The Batwoman announcement comes as DC Entertainment is making a big push to increase its original TV and movie content ahead of the launch of the DC Universe streaming service, which will feature a live-action Titans show, Doom Patrol, the continuation of the animated Young Justice series and the entire collection of Batman: The Animated Series seasons remastered in HD.

Being on The CW network, Batwoman would likely also be part of The CW's deal with Netflix, in which the network's shows arrive to the streaming service in the US days after their season finales air.

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