Late last June, the second season of “Batwoman” came to an end on The CW. This follow-up to the inaugural season back in 2019 had a tough job selling a new lead character to don the titular hero’s suit, with Javicia Leslie’s Ryan Wilder replacing Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane. Then the plot developments allowed for a new actress in Wallis Day to take over the role of Kate, while still cementing Ryan as the new Batwoman. All in all, the “soft reboot” did as the production hoped. Plans are now underway to introduce new characters for season 3. One of which, Renee Montoya, is being “reprised” by her “Gotham” actress.

Deadline tells us that The CW is looking at a cast member from a separate Batman-related series that aired on Fox, to portray the supporting character she played there. That would be Victoria Cartagena, who is being cast as Gotham City detective Renee Montoya in the next season of “Batwoman.” That was also the role she played in Fox’s “Gotham,” a non-Arrow-verse show set during the aftermath of the murders of Bruce Wayne’s parents, and the events that would lead to his becoming Batman. As expected, their backstories are different.

In “Gotham,” Cartagena’s Montoya is an active GCPD detective, while her version on “Batwoman” will be one who left the force owing to its endemic corruption. She is currently part of a police division tasked to investigate “freaks,” of which many will soon arise in Gotham City following the finale of season 2. Nonetheless, both Montoya’s retain common elements of the character from DC Comics (herself adapted from the original version in “Batman: The Animated Series”). That means Renee Montoya, regardless of series, is an LGBT+ social crusader with a pragmatic mindset, and will clean the streets of freaked-up criminality by any means deemed necessary.

Victoria Cartagena acknowledged her casting on her Twitter page this past Tuesday, July 20, phrasing it as having “unfinished” business with the Montoya character, which she played for (and appeared in) only season 1 of five-season “Gotham.” Her new version on “Batwoman” will be truer to the comic text too, being an adult contemporary of Batman and his related characters. What is not known is if the series will touch on a later print development where Montoya takes up the costumed identity of The Question. Fans will just have to wait for “Batwoman” to resume.

Cartagena is joined in the upcoming casting by Robin Givens as Jada Jett, CEO of Jett Industries and possible birth mother of Ryan Wilder/Batwoman 2 (Javicia Leslie). The CW has given no date yet for when “Batwoman” season 3 premieres.

Image from Comic Book Resources

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