The second season ofBatwomanpremiered January 17 on The CW. While it came with plenty of fighting and revenge plots — and maybe a bit of brooding — fans were also tuning in because of the drama that happened behind the scenes of the superhero series.
In the first season,Ruby Roseplayed Kate Kane – an LGBTQ+-rights activist, former military cadet and real estate entrepreneur who moonlights as vigilante Batwoman after discovering that her cousin Bruce Wayne had secretly been Gotham’s Dark Knight before he skipped town. Rose departed the series after Season 1, allowing for a new star and new lead character to don the infamous Kevlar suit:Javicia Leslie’shomeless orphan, Ryan Wilder.
“As a fan of [the character] Batman, the suit has always represented a legacy,” Leslie told journalists during the show’s virtual press day earlier this month. She added that “that’s kind of the journey that Ryan goes on. Because when she first gets the suit – like me, when I first got the job – you question whether or not you’re worthy of what this really represents; what this legacy means. And as she goes on her journey and you’ll find out whether or not she becomes worthy.”
In doing this,Batwomanhasn’t shied away from the casting change (indeed; series creatorCaroline Drieswrote the second season premiere and titled it “Whatever Happened to Kate Kane?").
“This is not normal in American broadcast television because of how contracts work in American broadcast television,” said Myles McNutt, a TV critic and assistant professor at Old Dominion University, who reminded us that most series regulars’ contracts for these shows lock them into a project for six or seven years.
McNutt continued that whether a series can pull off this switch depends a lot on its tone; a sitcom or another series that doesn’t take itself too seriously, like The CW’sLegends of Tomorrow, could get away with a casting switch just by use of a meta-joke. He thinks HBO’sGame of Thronesmanaged to handle multiple recastings because “it’s a fantasy” and fans were already “accepting dragons and this dark magic.” But “as TV becomes more serialized… recasting is more fraught in that environment,” McNutt said.
“In the case ofBatwoman, it’s a superhero show,” he said. “A new person playing the role of Batwoman within the diegesis of the program gives you that flexibility.”
HowBatwomansucceeds at the casting switch remains to be seen. But it’s also the latest in a history of series that have, for one reason or another, switched around their call sheets. Here’s how some others have handled the situation.
[For the purposes of time and obvious decisions, we’ve left out notations involving children and/or soap opera characters.]
Departing Actor:Dick York
Replaced By:Dick Sargent
Character Change?:No. They both played Darrin Stephens, husband to Elizabeth Montgomery’s witch-in-hiding, Samantha.
Year of Departure:1969
Stated Reason for Leaving:Back injury
But Really, Why?:According toYork’sLos Angeles Timesobituary: “That injury prompted York’s addiction to muscle relaxants, codeine and sleeping pills, which eventually cost him his best-remembered role inBewitched. The Emmy nominee originated the role of the hapless mortal husband and was with the show during its most popular years, 1964-69. After he collapsed on the set in 1969, he was replaced by Dick Sargent.”
What Happened Next:Audiences did not adjust their TV dials. “Sometimes it just doesn’t engage the fans in the same way,” said Ron Simon, head of the curatorial department at The Paley Center for Media in New York.
Plus Robert Thompson, trustee professor of television and popular culture and founding director, Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, says “it was just so casually done, it’s hard to tell the difference” and that “viewers accepted it, because everybody else on the show accepted it.”
The Jeffersons
Departing Actor:Mike Evans
Replaced By:Damon Evans (no relation)
Character Change?No. Both played Lionel Jefferson, the son of leads George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford).
Year of Department:1975
Stated Reason for Leaving:Mike Evans played Lionel on Norman Lear’sAll in the Familyand in the first season of spinoffThe Jeffersons. However, he also co-created the Lear seriesGood Times, which premiered in 1974. His schedule wouldn’t allow him to do both. Evans returned to his role onThe Jeffersonsin 1979.
But Really, Why?:This is a completely plausible reason.
What Happened Next:Damon Evans’ appearance in Season 2 ofThe Jeffersonsisn’t treated as any other Lionel scene.
Charlie’s Angels
Departing Actor:Farrah Fawcett
Replaced By:Cheryl Ladd
Character Change?Yes. Ladd played Kris Munroe, the sister of Fawcett’s Jill Munroe.
Year of Department:1977
Stated Reason for Leaving:Finances and creative differences, according toBiography.com.
But Really, Why?:Previously an unknown, “Farrah Fawcett was the huge breakaway star of the first season ofCharlie’s Angels,” said Thompson. “She had all kinds of disputes and problems.”
What Happened Next:Ladd took the role, eventually becoming the second-longest serving member of the Angels (after original member of the squad Jaclyn Smith). Fawcett returned as a guest star for Seasons 3 and 4 of the show.
Departing Actor:Valerie Harper
Replaced By:Sandy Duncan
Character Change?Yes. Duncan played a new character, also named Sandy, who came in to help raise the children after Harper’s character was killed in a car accident.
Year of Department:1987
Stated Reason for Leaving:Harper and husband Tony Cacciotti demanded more control of the show and more money from producers and NBC with things escalating so much that NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff more-or-less dared everyone to chill or he’d replace Harper’s character.
But Really, Why?:This is one of the most legendary disputes in TV history. According to herThe New York Timesobituary, Harper “won a wrongful termination suit against Lorimar Television, the production company, and was awarded compensatory damages variously reported at between $1.4 million and $1.85 million, as well as profit participation in the show.”
If this, and other examples on this list sound sexist, Thompson reminded that “there is an element of sexism in virtually all [of] Hollywood and television.” And in the workplace in general, he said, because “If you’ve got a man who is standing up for himself and being assertive … we consider that leadership. We use the B-word oftentimes for women doing that very same thing.”
What Happened Next:The show’s title was changed toValerie’s Familyand thenThe Hogan Family. The behind-the-scenes drama also set the template for what was to come with the revival ofRoseanneon ABC.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Departing Actor:Janet Hubert
Replaced By:Daphne Maxwell Reid
Character Change?No. Both played family matriarch Vivian “Aunt Viv” Banks on the NBC sitcom.
Year of Department:1993
Stated Reason for Leaving:Rumors swirled for years about Hubert’s unhappiness on the set; that she was hard to work with or that she and Smith didn’t get along. The show incorporated her real-life pregnancy into the third season, but she left after that year.
But Really, Why?:Hubert said in theFresh Princereunion episode that aired in 2020 on Peacock that she had an unhappy home life at the time and that she rejected a “bad deal” from the show’s producers. “I lost everything — reputation, everything,”she said in that special. “Those words, calling a Black woman ‘difficult’ in Hollywood is the kiss of death. It’s hard enough being a dark-skinned Black woman in this business.”
What Happened Next:Reid entered the show in its Season 4 premiere. During the episode, DJ Jazzy Jeff’s Jazz deadpans that “since you’ve had that baby, there’s something different about you” while star Will Smith looks at the audience. “Referring to the thing is a much more modern thing,” Thompson said. “They’d have never done that onBewitched.” Plus, he said, the joke fit within the language of the show sinceFresh Princewas already known for “breaking-the-fourth-wall allusions.”
House of Cards
Departing Actor:Kevin Spacey
Replaced By:No one
Character Change?No.
Year of Department:2017
Stated Reason for Leaving:Firing
But Really, Why?:After sexual assault allegations against Spacey came to light during the rise of the MeToo movement, Netflix opted to severe ties with the actor.
What Happened Next:We learn at the start of the show’s sixth, and final, season that Spacey’s Machiavellian politician Frank Underwood is now dead. Michael Kelly’s Doug Stamper, who was previously Frank’s clean-up guy, poisoned him to protect Frank’s equally ambitious wife, Claire Underwood (Robin Wright).
ODU professor McNutt said this worked because Wright’s character was already a central focus ofCards.He said it also had the benefit of shifting “the show toward this female character, which gave them a different angle to kind of move from.”
Departing Actor:Roseanne Barr
Year of Department:2018
But Really, Why?:Comedian Roseanne Barr was known for her right-wing political beliefs and large social media presence before ABC ordered the revival of her hit comedy about a working-class Illinois family. She was fired after she sent aracist Tweetabout former Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values,” ABC’s then-entertainment president, Channing Dungey, said in a statement.
What Happened Next:The show was rebrandedThe Conners. Killing off Barr’s character through an opioid overdose and centering on the other members of the family, it’s now in its third season.
But, as Thompson pointed out, “Roseanneis the mother lode of this [casting] problem.” He noted that, not only did actresses Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke each play eldest sister Becky at different points in the original iteration of the show, but that first version also they had to “collectively erase from our memories” that they’d killed off Roseanne’s husband Dan (John Goodman). He’s alive and well in the reboot.
