A well-recognised television figure and a political commentator, Rachel Maddow is now trying out the theatrical dice. She joins the cast of The CW’s Batwoman. The Rachel Maddow Show host will portray Vesper Fairchild, a Gotham television and radio personality who first appeared in the Batman comics.
She shared her excitement on Twitter by saying,
I know no one's going to believe this is true, but it's true.
I'm "Vesper Fairchild" in the new Batwoman TV show that starts this Sunday night on The CW.
(My character is soooo not me; turns out playing her is one of the most fun things I've ever done).https://t.co/LP8PauXvUL
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) October 4, 2019
However, Maddow herself is not making an appearance onscreen during this season. According to Caroline Dries, the show’s writer and executive producer, only Maddow’s voice will be featured as the ‘sardonic voice of Gotham.’
“In addition to Rachel’s interest in Batwoman, we thought she’d be the perfect casting choice because her own hard-hitting journalism wildly contrasts Vesper’s penchant for snark, gossip and criticism of female superheroes,” said Dries.
As per the comics, Vesper has only been mentioned once as a former fling of Oliver Queen in DC’s Arrowverse. She then becomes romantically involved with Bruce Wayne before she is murdered on the orders of Lex Luthor, the then US President.
Maddow’s association with the story of Batwoman dates back to the year 2010 where she wrote an introduction for a collection of Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman story, Elegy. Now, she seems to be appearing in multiple episodes. The characterisation of the lead role in the show is distinctive and it is gaining ground already. The DC character Kate Kane is played by Australian model and actress Ruby Rose whereas, Kane is a lesbian superhero who takes charge as the Gotham city’s new caped crusader after her cousin Bruce Wayne disappears.
Here’s how CW described the Batwoman, “Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate Kane soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city’s criminal resurgence. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a saviour, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.”
Although the MSNBC host has no plans to make any physical appearance as of now but however, her casting on Batwoman is particularly noteworthy. Maddow made history as the first lesbian anchor to host a primetime news program in the US back in the year 2008. Over the years she has presented herself as a distinctive, unorthodox and intelligent liberal commentator. Thus, Maddow’s inclusion in a show which features the Arrowverse’s first lesbian superhero is a matter of pre-eminence in the conventional world of comics.