Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries reveals the future for Kate Kane

Javicia Leslie as Batwoman
(Image credit: The CW)

This post contains spoilers for The CW's Batwoman. If you're not caught up on Season 2, be sure to bookmark this page and come back to check out the story once you're caught up.

Ruby Rose's departure as Kate Kane was a huge shake-up for the Batwoman world. Javicia Leslie has been doing a stellar job as the series' new protagonist, Ryan Wilder, but with Kate Kane continuing to play a role in the story, some major questions still remain. TV Line sat down with Batwoman showrunner, Caroline Dries, to get some answers on what's in store for the future of Kate Kane and the Bat-Family. 

In the recent episode "Survived Much Worse" it was revealed that Kate Kane, just moments prior believed dead, is still very much alive. With the news of her survival came the team's acknowledgment that Kane had indeed been recast with Kryptonite's Wallis Day, leading to a whole lot of questions from fans. Dries opened up about how this new development will affect the second half of the season. 

"Obviously, this is a hugely pivotal moment in the season and the series," she said. "We specifically fold it out in the story in this way so that all of our characters go to Coryana thinking Kate’s alive hoping to find her and discover by the end of it that Kate is dead. It allows them to close that door on Kate Kane and allows them to grieve and move on. We decided to let the audience in on this huge secret that while our characters don’t know she’s alive, she is actually alive. We will watch these two parallel stories of our Bat Team moving on to protect Gotham without being in the shadow of Kate, and Kate going through this complicated and serious journey that will be tough for her and nail-biting to the audience."

As far as Kate's future is concerned, well, things are about to get a little messy there. While the audience is aware of Kate's survival, the rest of the team has very much said their farewells to the character. What happens when Kate Kane eventually gets her memories back and returns to a Gotham that no longer needs her? 

“There’s this tragic irony happening, where our characters have been looking for Kate desperately, and now they believe she’s dead, and so as they’re moving on with their lives, the audience is privy to this huge piece of information that Kate’s actually alive. So moving forward, Kate’s in for a bumpy road,” said Dries. “That’s all I’ll tease, and our characters, of course, are eventually going to be looped into this huge piece of news. But it’s pure drama from here on out, and it’s going to affect every character directly, just the way her disappearance affected every character differently.”

Hungry for more Batwoman? Check out the best Batwoman stories of all time. Or something else to watch? Check out the best Netflix shows available right now. 

Streaming Editor at IGN

Amelia is now the Streaming Editor for IGN, but formerly worked for What To Watch, and GamesRadar. She writes about all things TV and movies.