Batwoman Season 2 Set to Introduce DC Villain Black Mask

Ahead of Batwoman‘s return this coming Sunday, showrunner Caroline Dries has revealed new details about the new Gotham villains that Javicia Leslie’s Scarlet Knight will face in the upcoming second season of The CW series. She confirmed that DC villain Roman Sionis a.k.a Black Mask will finally be making his debut into the Arrowverse as the leader of the False Face Society. Further details about who will play the character are still being kept under wraps. Black Mask also made his DCEU debut last year in Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey film with Ewan McGregor portraying the vicious crime lord.

“We have a couple big bads this season,” Dries said in a recent interview with EW. “One, [who] we teed up midway through last season, is this woman Safiyah, and she’s sort of Alice’s Achilles’ Heel. And ultimately yes with the False Face Society, we will see the leader of this gang as Black Mask later on in the season.”

She added on the new Batwoman‘s connection with Black Mask, “While Ryan never used drugs, she was in a relationship where somebody was using drugs and it’s ultimately what got Ryan put away in jail. So, it’s this idea that Ryan is this innocent woman and if she were white, per se, she might not have had the same punishment [that] she, as an innocent Black woman, had to go through. That’s a huge piece of her backstory, so that’s something we’re exploring this year. Batwoman has this particular vendetta against the False Face Society because the idea of drugs permeating the city and nobody taking any responsibility for it strikes at her core.”

After Ruby Rose’s sudden departure back in May, Javicia Leslie was cast as the new lead of the series and will be become the first Black actress to play Batwoman in a live-action TV or film production. She is set to portray the role of Ryan Wilder, who is described as “likable, messy, a little goofy and untamed” and that she is “nothing like Kate Kane, the woman who wore the Batsuit before her.”

Season 2 will also feature new cast members Shivani Ghai (Dominion) as Safiyah, Leah Gibson as The Whisper, Nathan Owens as Ocean, and Alex Morf as Victor Zsasz.

Technically, Kate Kane wasn’t the only character to adopt the Batwoman persona in DC’s comic book universe. Almost 50 years before Kate debuted in 2005, Kathy Kane became the first superhero to use this alias in 1956 during the Silver Age. But since her name is so similar to her modern successor, an appearance by this iteration of the hero was probably never in the cards.

The first season starred Ruby Rose as Kate Kane/Batwoman, Rachel Skarsten as Alice, Meagan Tandy (Teen Wolf) as Sophie Moore, Camrus Johnson (Luke Cage) as Luke Fox, Nicole Kang (You) as Mary Hamilton, Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane.

Based on the characters from DC, Batwoman is from Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television with executive producers Greg Berlanti, Caroline Dries, Geoff Johns, and Sarah Schechter. David Nutter and Marcos Siega executive produced the pilot.

Season 2 is scheduled to premiere on Sunday, January 17, 2021.