Batwoman To Debut in Next Arrowverse Cross-Over

9 actors we think could play Batwoman when she makes her live action debut in the Arrowverse crossover

On Thursday, Arrow star Stephen Amell announced at The CW’s Upfront presentation that Batwoman would make her live action debut in this year’s superhero crossover. Not only does that mean the CW heroes will finally encounter a member of the Bat-family, but that Gotham City will also become part of the Arrowverse, too — which has been a long time coming as the various shows have dropped many references to Batman over the years.

We’re six months out from the highly-anticipated crossover, so no casting decisions have been made yet. In the meantime, we’ve pulled together a list of our dream picks for the role.

Who is Batwoman?

Before we get to our dream casting, it’s important that we quickly explain who Batwoman is because, in case you didn’t know, she’s actually a completely different character from Batgirl. In fact, the former came before the latter. Batwoman made her first comic book appearance in Detective Comics 233 in 1956 as Kathy Kane; however, the character was later rebooted as Kate Kane in the post-Infinite Crisis series 52 and this new incarnation was lesbian with a military background.

Rose Leslie

In recent years, Batwoman has mostly shaved her head, only wearing a red wig while in costume in order to better protect her secret identity. So red hair isn’t PARAMOUNT in this casting, but considering Leslie has already played badass redhead Ygritte on Game of Thrones, she seems more than qualified to step into Kate Kane’s boots. —Christian Holub

Patti Murin

The Frozen: The Musical star immediately threw her hat in the ring for Batwoman on Twitter as soon as the news was announced Thursday. Plus, it probably helps that she’s also married Colin Donnell, who played Oliver Queen’s best friend Tommy Merlyn in Arrow season 1. —Chancellor Agard

Adrianne Palicki

This former Friday Night Lights star is no stranger to superhero shows. Her experience playing Bobbi Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird, on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. means she’s more than capable of handling Kate Kain’s military background, and DC previously thought she was more than up to the task of playing Wonder Woman, too. —C.A.

Evan Rachel Wood

Wood is, obviously, already kicking ass on genre TV as Dolores, the Lucifer of Westworld’s robot rebellion. But if she feels like giving the eloquent monologues a break in exchange for straight-up vigilante action, she could sure make a seductively powerful Batwoman. —C.H.

Phoebe Tonkin

If Berlanti and company are looking within the family, they should consider Tonkin, who is now a free agent since The Originals is ending this year and has tons of experience dealing with action and heavy material. —C.A

Yvonne Strahovksi

She voiced the character in the direct-to-video animated movie Batman: Bad Blood, so let’s give the Chuck alum a chance to play her on TV, too. —C.A.

Hayley Atwell

Atwell’s Peggy Carter is one of the most energetic performances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but since the cancellation of Agent Carter she’s been mostly absent from superhero cinema. With Josh Brolin currently pulling double-duty as Cable and Thanos, why not let Atwell dip her toes in multiple superhero universes as well? She could pull off both Kate Kane’s glamorous alter ego and Batwoman’s ass-kicking heroism. —Christian Holub

Hannah John-Kamen

The Killjoys star has proven that she’s believable as someone who is as smart as she is dangerous. —C.A.

Tessa Thompson

The Thor: Ragnarok scene stealer can absolutely take on another superhero role because she’s proven she can do anything. (Also, she has already expressed some interest in doing a Batman-related story, as seen in this tweet here.)

The Arrowverse is finally heading to Gotham City and bringing Batwoman along. As The CW has built up its universe of DC properties, it has had to do so while working with DC Entertainment. This has sometimes led to restrictions on what characters they can't use (see Deathstroke and Deadshot's disappearances), but also allowed for lesser known characters to get their shine. The result has kept Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow alive for multiple seasons with all of them now crossing over twice for a mega-event.

They are planning to do such an event once again and needed to find a new threat that forced them all to come together. They've previously battled an alien invasion and opened up some new doors in the process. But, their plans for the next crossover will finally venture to Batman's hometown - even if he won't be there.

RELATED: ARROW'S BRUCE WAYNE MENTION OPENS UP POSSIBILITIES
During The CW's Upfront presentation, Arrow star Stephen Amell took to the stage to discuss the future of his show and the universe. In doing so, he dropped some major news about what they've planned for the next crossover. The full details haven't been revealed, but the heroes will journey to Gotham City for the first time ever and will be joined by Kate Kane aka Batwoman according to Michael Schneider. Check out some teaser art for the crossover below too.

The ability for the Arrowverse to finally interact with Gotham is a major step for the universe to take. They've referenced Gotham by name before, and finally name dropped Bruce Wayne in this past season of Arrow, but the chance to go there could open up the universe for so much more. They were able to use Superman (albeit briefly) in Supergirl, so them starting to build up Gotham by bringing in Batwoman could just be the beginning.

They have yet to announce casting for Batwoman or what her introduction means moving forward, but there has to be discussions happening right now about potentially spinning her out into her own series. There's not even a mandate that it'd have to be just Batwoman either. The CW could possibly launch a Bat Family show in a year. After all, Gotham is concluding its run with season 5, so DC could be interested in getting another Batman-related series out (that isn't the Alfred prequel TV series).

Even if a Batwoman series isn't what the ultimate future is, she could become a recurring character across the universe. There's also the chance that they could begin to use some more iconic Batman villains as well. If Gotham and Batman properties are now fully available, then the Arrowverse just got a ton of new toys to play with. At the very least, it instantly makes the upcoming crossover even more anticipated.