Sci-Fi Storm

Color me unsurprised, but The CW has ordered up a pilot for a Batwoman series starring Ruby Rose (Orange Is the New Black)  after the character appeared in the most recent Arrowverse crossover event. David Nutter, who directed the pilot episode of sibling show The Flash, will direct with a script from Caroline Dries (Smallville, The Vampire Diaries).

This would make the first openly gay lead series character in a live-action superhero series. Batwoman/Kate Kane (Rose) appeared in the three part “Elseworlds” crossover event spread across Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl, helping Gotham as a highly-trained street fighter but must face her own demons before she’s willing to take on the mantle of hero.

Dries, Nutter, Berlanti Productions’ Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and former DC Entertainment president Geoff Johns will executive produce.

Some casting news this week…

Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen pilot for HBO added three more to the ranks this week, in the form of Dylan Schombing (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce), Lily Rose Smith (The Vampire Diaries) and young newcomer Adelynn Spoon. They join an extensive list which includes Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Frances Fisher and Louis Gossett Jr. Producers are tight-lipped about any characters though.

The eighth installment of FX’s horror anthology American Horror Story, subtitled “Apocalypse”, sees a bunch of familiar faces returning. Alums Gabourey Sidibe, Taissa Farmiga, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, Adina Porter, Emma Roberts, Cheyenne Jackson, Billy Eichner, Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, and Stevie Nicks will all join Jessica Lange, which director Ryan Murphy is billing as a crossover between the “Coven” and “Murder House” seasons. Joan Collins is also joining the cast this season.

And it appears that the DC TV Arrowverse will see a Gotham addition. Orange Is the New Black‘s Ruby Rose has signed on for the role of Batwoman for the next four-series Arrowverse crossover event this December, and is also expected to film a full-length pilot for a potential Batwoman TV series, which already looks like it will have a good chance of going to series.