Ruby Rose quits ‘Batwoman’ after one season

The bat signal has gone out for Ruby Rose. After only one season in the title role of Batwoman, Rose has announced that she is leaving the superhero series. This surprising news arrives after the CW already confirmed that Batwoman has received a second season renewal.“I have made the very difficult decision to not return to Batwoman next season,” Rose said in a statement. “This was not a decision I made lightly as I have the utmost respect for the cast, crew and everyone involved with the show in both Vancouver and in Los Angeles.”Rose, who is best known for her roles on Orange Is The New Black and in the feature films The Meg, XXX: The Return of Xander Cage and Pitch Perfect 3, was cast as Batwoman in 2018. “I am beyond appreciative to Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Caroline Dries for not only giving me this incredible opportunity, but for welcoming me into the DC universe they have so beautifully created,” Rose continued. “Thank you Peter Roth and Mark Pedowitz and the teams at Warner Bros. and The CW who put so much into the show and always believed in me. Thank you to everyone who made season one a success – I am truly grateful.”[video_embed id='-1']RELATED: Batwoman has already changed Ruby Rose’s life[/video_embed]The studio and producers also released a statement following Rose’s exit, confirming that they will be recasting the role of Batwoman. “Warner Bros. Television, The CW and Berlanti Productions thank Ruby for her contributions to the success of our first season and wish her all the best,” read the statement. “The studio and network are firmly committed to Batwoman’s second season and long-term future, and we—along with the show’s talented creative team—look forward to sharing its new direction, including the casting of a new lead actress and member of the LGBTQ community, in the coming months.”Rose’s Batwoman made history as the first gay lead character for a live-action superhero series. In the premiere season’s 10th episode, titled ‘How Queer Everything Is Today!,’ Rose’s Kate Kane, who was already out, came out as her alter-ego Batwoman. Showrunner Caroline Dries, who wrote the episode, told The Hollywood Reporter that her script was so moving it left Rose, who herself identifies as gender fluid, in tears.“I know it meant a lot to her. Interestingly, there was a line [in the script] where Parker says, "It doesn’t get better," and Kate says, ‘You know, you’re right Parker, it doesn’t get better.’ Ruby wrote to me and said, ‘You know, a lot of people look up to this character and watch this show and they don’t want to hear the lead character say, 'You’re right, it doesn’t get better.' So, we found a way to tweak it, so it could be like, it’s still hard out there, but you will get better if you start to love yourself more and embrace yourself. It was personal to both of us, so we wanted to make sure we got it right.”

 

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I love these pics from “The Pilot” and “The Rabbit Hole” @msiega did such an amazing job on these two. Love @carolinedries show-runner face in the second pic haha.

A post shared by Ruby Rose (@rubyrose) on Oct 14, 2019 at 9:21pm PDT

According to Deadline, Rose’s exit is not related to the serious injury she sustained while filming the first season, which required emergency surgery and almost left the Australian actress and model paralyzed. Deadline also reported that Rose was rumoured to be unhappy on-set and her decision to leave the show was supported by producers.Not that her journey with the role was an easy one.The actress received excessive backlash from trolls who criticized her casting since they felt she was "not gay enough" to portray a lesbian superhero. “Where on earth did ‘Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can’t be Batwoman’ come from–has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read,” Rose wrote before deleting her Twitter profile. “I came out at 12? And have for the past 5 years had to deal with ‘she’s too gay’ how do y’all flip it like that? I didn’t change.”Batwoman’s premiere season was cut short by two episodes after it was forced to shut down production due to COVID-19. Prior to news that Rose was leaving her role as Batwoman, the CW had already announced they were delaying their fall 2020 lineup for a 2021 premiere (the finale episode of Supernatural will still air this fall). Batwoman now has to find its new caped crusader.[video_embed id='1960946']BEFORE YOU GO: Cat fight erupts during live TV interview[/video_embed]