The first season of The CW’sBatwomanreferred to a character named Safiyah on multiple occasions starting with the seventh episode of the series. Now,Dominionstar Shivani Ghai has been cast as Safiyah in the second season ofBatwomanoppositelead actress Javicia Leslie.
According to the official description of the character, Ghai’s incarnation of Safiyah will share herDC Comics counterpart’stitle as the ruler of a small community on the island of Coryana. While Safiyah may have as many enemies as aliases, she is a charismatic and compassionate leader who is beloved by the people whom she will stop at nothing to protect. As a woman with both physical and psychological expertise, nobody slips by Safiyah unnoticed, especially if they have come across the Desert Rose.
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TVLine has learned Ghai joins the cast in a recurring role and that while Safiyah may share a history with Batwoman/Kate Kane in the comics, that past will be altered to tie the character to Kane’s sister Alice in the wake ofRuby Rose’s exit from the series. The first reference to the character occurred in the aforementioned seventh episode ofBatwoman, in which viewers learned Safiyah was responsible for hiring Rifle to kill the titular heroine. The threat level posed by Safiyah was made clear after she murdered Alice’s Wonderland Gang and subsequently forced Alice and surviving gang member Mouse to stay in Arkham Asylum in order to hide.
Ghai, whose previous credits includeLondon Has FallenandThe Catch, joins returning cast members Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Nicole Kang, Camrus Johnson, and Dougray Scott. Actress Javicia Leslie also makes her debut in the second season as Ryan Wilder, who will succeed Kate Kane as Batwoman. The in-universeexplanation for why Kate Kane has disappearedwill be a central mystery of the second season, with Wilder taking on the role of finding her predecessor.
It should be interesting to see how Safiyah is formally introduced to the series, considering the groundwork that was laid for her debut may have been impacted by the cast changes for the second season. After all,Ruby Rose’s decision to leave the seriesappears to have been a personal decision rather than a creative choice on the part of the showrunners.
Unfortunately, fans will have to wait until next year for Safiyah’s long-teased debut. The second season ofBatwomanwas one ofthe many CW projects to be postponeddue to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Batwomanseason 2 is scheduled to air on The CW in January 2021.
