Batwoman TV series just cast Batman – sort of

Fans of Batwoman and its various sister shows - Supergirl, The Flash et al - have long wondered if the Dark Knight himself, Batman, would ever make an appearance in the Arrowverse.

Back in 2018, Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries told The Wrap that while the series was allowed by Warner Bros. to reference the Batman character, an on-screen appearance is "where they cut you off".

But in its first season finale, Batwoman came closer than ever to having Batman appear – revealing the face of the Arrowverse's Bruce Wayne in a surprising casting. Well, sort of.

In the episode, titled 'O, Mouse!', the super-villain Tommy Elliot a.k.a. Hush (Gabriel Mann) underwent plastic surgery to become the exact double of Bruce Wayne, with actor Warren Christie playing the transformed version.

So while Bruce himself is yet to appear in the Arrowverse – the character has been established as being MIA, his current whereabouts unknown – we do now know what he looks like, with Christie also presumably in line to play the real Wayne should he ever appear.

"First and foremost, it’s like: well who’s Bruce Wayne?" Dries told Decider. "Because he has to look exactly like him. So we needed to cast a Bruce Wayne.

"Then, the sort of secondary requirement, apart from obviously being a great actor, is: does he sort of physically resemble what Tommy Elliot’s body would look like? And so we needed to find somebody who was the same size, height-wise and body-wise. So, that’s sort of like a secondary thing, but it worked out with Warren too.

"But the fact of the matter is, I would’ve made any allowance, in my mind, once I saw Warren Christie’s name on the list. I was like, 'Okay, this feels like who our Bruce Wayne would be.'"

Only time will tell if Christie – who actually made a previous appearance in the Arrowverse, playing Carter Bowen in a 2012 episode of Arrow – will ever get to play the real Bruce Wayne, or if portraying his doppelgänger is as good as it gets.

The Arrowverse previously introduced an older, villainous version of Bruce from a parallel world, with Kevin Conroy – who voiced Batman in the 1990s animated series – portraying the character in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event.

Batwoman airs on The CW in the US and on E4 in the UK – check out what else is on with our TV Guide