BREAKING OUT
SHOWRUNNER CAROLINE DRIES REFLECTS ON HOW BATWOMAN CHANGED BOTH HER AND THE SUPERHERO LANDSCAPE
WORDS: TARA BENNETT
FOR THREE SEASONS, GOTHAM City was a much better place because of its protector, Batwoman.The CW series translated the comic book character into a live-action renegade with Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), the first lesbian superhero leading a series, and then with Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie), the first queer black superhero leading a series.
The authenticity of the show’s LGBTQ+ perspective carried through from the creative mind behind the series, showrunner Caroline Dries. As a lesbian writer in Hollywood, Batwoman afforded Dries the opportunity to imbue her own experiences into the stories of both iterations of the superhero. Over the course of 51 episodes, Batwoman broke new ground with inclusive and diverse storytelling in the superhero sphere, as well as making the character much more present in the overall pop culture conversation.