Today in Most Excellent Casting Decisions: The CW has found an actor badass enough to fill Batwoman’s boots, officially setting Ruby Rose to make her debut as the other caped crusader during the network’s annual DC crossover. Rose, best known for her action-centric roles in John Wick: Chapter 2 and xXx: Return of Xander Cage, will appear first in the big Arrow-verse crossover event later this year before headlining her very own Batwoman series.

Entertainment Weekly revealed the news of Rose’s casting as Batwoman, aka Kate Kane, who will make her debut during The CW’s annual DC TV crossover event in December — joining the heroes from Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl (Legends of Tomorrow will not be included). The Australian model-turned-actress first came to our attention stateside with a supporting role on Orange Is the New Black. Since then, she’s appeared in John Wick: Chapter 2 (and is returning for next year’s sequel), xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and most recently in the upcoming Jason Statham prehistoric shark thriller The Meg.

After her introduction on the crossover event, Rose’s Kate Kane will lead her very own live-action Batwoman series on The CW, written by Caroline Dries (The Vampire Diaries). Dries will also executive produce the series with Arrow-verse mastermind Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and DC’s Geoff Johns.

Rose’s casting is of particular note — not only because she has the action skills, acting chops, killer confidence and swagger to play a superhero, but because she’s an openly gay actor who identifies as gender-fluid. Batwoman herself will be one of TV’s first openly gay LGBTQ superheroes following Black Lightning‘s Anissa Pierce, and that’s not a small deal, by any means.

Say what you will about the DC universe on screens both big and small, but they’ve definitely been ahead of the curve in some ways. Warner Bros. and DC Films gave a female superhero her own solo film and hired a woman to direct with 2017’s Wonder Woman, the studio’s fourth film in the franchise; meanwhile, Marvel’s first solo female superhero movie — Captain Marvel — won’t arrive until May 2019, over 10 years and twice as many films into the studio’s own run. That film will also boast Marvel Studios’ first female director, Anna Boden, who’s sharing co-directing credit with filmmaking partner Ryan Fleck.

Although the DC movie and TV universes are only connected by parent company and comic book source material, it’s still another win for the House of Batman — and soon, a very badass Batwoman.

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