Batwoman showrunner’s refusal to kill off Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane marks a refreshing and important change
Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries has said that they will not kill off Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane character because they are aware of the Bury Your Gays trope.
“Bury Your Gays” refers to the trope in fictional stories where LGBT+ characters die or meet an unhappy ending.
When Ruby Rose announced that she would not be returning for the second season of the CW series, there was some speculation that they would kill her character off – but the writers veered away from such a move to avoid falling into the much-maligned trope.
Batwoman writers will not kill Kate Kane off so they can avoid the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope.
“As a lesbian who’s been working as a writer for the past 15 years, I’m well aware of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope and I have no interest in participating in it,” Dries said.
“That’s why it’s important to me as the showrunner to clarify any misinformation out there about Kate Kane and recasting Batwoman.
“Like you, I love Kate Kane – she’s the reason I wanted to do the show. We’ll never erase her. In fact, her disappearance will be one of the mysteries of season two.”
The showrunner continued: “I don’t want to give away any of our surprises, but to all our devoted fans, please know that LGBT+ justice is at the very core of what Batwoman is and we have no intention of abandoning that.”
As a lesbian who’s been working as a writer for the past 15 years, I’m well aware of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope and I have no interest in participating in it.
Dries’ comments come just weeks after it was announced that Ruby Rose was giving up her Batwoman role after just one season on the hit show.
In a statement released last month, Rose said: “I have made the very difficult decision to not return to Batwoman next season.
“This was not a decision I made lightly as I have the utmost respect for the cast, crew and everyone involved with the show in both Vancouver and Los Angeles.”
Ruby Rose said leaving the show ‘wasn’t an easy decision’.
However, TVLine later quoted an anonymous source which claimed that Rose’s shock departure was not entirely her decision.
“It was a breakup. She wasn’t happy working on the show, and did that make her fun to work with? No,” the source said.
Writing on Instagram last month, Rose said she knows “how big” the show was for the LGBT+ community.
“Thank you everyone for coming on this journey,” Rose wrote.
“If I mentioned everyone it would be 1000 tags,” she said, and went on to thank the cast, crew, producers and studio.
“It wasn’t an easy decision but those who know, know,” Rose added.