It appears that Javicia Leslie’s Ryan Wilder will have plenty on her plate in the upcoming Batwoman Season 2. While everyone knows about the change under the cape and cowl of Gotham’s masked vigilante, it looks that there will be some new entries in the villain roster as well. While talking with EW, Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries revealed that Gotham’s new masked vigilante would clash with two major villains, Safiyah and Black Mask.
“We have a couple big bads this season,” Dries said. “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.”
A fairly recent character, Safiyah Sohail made her first comics appearance in Batwoman: Rebirth #1 in 2017. As for Black Mask, his real name is Roman Sionis, and he rules Gotham City’s criminal underworld as the leader of the drug cartel known as False Face Society. Fans recently saw the character in 2020’s Birds of Prey, where actor Ewan McGregor portrayed him. The new actor has yet to be announced.
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Dries then explained that drugs are part of Ryan’s backstory. Seems she served some time in jail for being caught in the wrong place with the wrong people.
“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,” she added. “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.”
Batwoman Season 2 will premiere on The CW on Jan. 17.
Are you happy to hear that Black Mask is part of Batwoman Season 2? Let us know in the comment section below!
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