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How the Batwoman Cast Reacted to Their New Star

Javicia Leslie, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten share their first impressions of each other and the new Batwoman.

By Lauren Piester Jan 14, 2021 1:03 AMTags
Watch: "Batwoman" Cast Shares Their First Impression of Javicia Leslie

There's a new bat in town and she really loves plants. 

Javicia Leslie takes over as the new Batwoman when the CW superhero drama returns this weekend, and it's not just Ryan Wilder who had to prove herself to Gotham. Javicia herself had a whole cast to get to know, and E! News got the cast to share their first impressions of each other—as well as the first impressions their characters had of their new Batwoman. 

From the sound of it, Javicia made friends right away. Ryan? Not so much. 

"I Facetimed with Javicia and we were both Facetimeing from our plants in LA," Nicole Kang shared. "I knew we were going to be friends." 

Rachel Skarsten also bonded with Javicia over a love of plants. 

"My first impression of Javicia actually preceded me meeting her in person," she said. "I think it was [Camrus Johnson] who told me she was really into plants, which made me think, 'This chick's cool.'" 

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Camrus actually met his new co-star on a very sad night. 

"The first night I met Javicia we grabbed dinner on the night that Chadwick Boseman passed away," he recalled. "And at first when she got there, I was like, 'I'm sorry, maybe we should have canceled since we're all grieving,' and she said, 'No, I feel like we should hang out even more because of today.' It was just showing me how big her heart was. So my first impression is that she is very loving and basically already family." 

Javicia found common ground with her new castmates pretty quickly and couldn't help but gush about them all. 

"They're all so uniquely different," she said, calling Camrus "the master of all trades" while Nicole and Meagan are like her sisters and she and Rachel are "obsessed" with animals. "I love it." 

As for how the citizens of Gotham feel about her character Ryan Wilder, that is a very different story. Everyone is grieving the disappearance of Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) and they're not immediately ready to welcome a new Batwoman into their lives. 

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"Luke's first impression of Ryan is the opposite of my first impression of Javicia," Camrus shared. "When you first meet her, he thinks there's going to be Kate in the batsuit and it's actually Ryan Wilder. So at first he thinks that she's a thief, he thinks that she is an imposter. And she is the definition of false hope for him because he thought that he saw his friend again. So hopefully he gets over that pretty soon." 

Nicole says that Ryan gives Mary "a little bit of a shock," but Mary soon gives Ryan a chance. For Sophie, it's less of a first impression and more of a 50th impression. 

"Sophie has arrested Ryan countless times," Meagan Tandy explained. "Now Ryan, here she is in Gotham and Sophie is seeing her again. She's definitely a little disappointed." 

Hit play above for more, and stay tuned for another visit to the set of Batwoman

Batwoman premieres Sunday, Jan. 17 on The CW.