Another member of the Bat-family is joining HBO Max‘s Titans series for its upcoming third season. Trusted Hollywood news source Variety exclusively reported Savannah Welch will play Gotham City Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon. In the past, Gordan fought Gotham City’s criminals as Batgirl.
Like in the comics, this Barbara Gordon finds herself wheelchair-bound due to the Joker shooting her which severed her spinal cord. She has hung up her cape and cowl and now fights crime within the system and the GCPD. Her relationship with Batman/Bruce Wayne will be strained to say the least. In Season Three of Titans, Dick Grayson/Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites) returns home where they revisit their past relationship and work together fighting crime.
Welch, who appeared in films like Boyhood and Tree of Life, is an amputee who uses a wheelchair in real life. She recently played a veteran who lost a leg in combat in Six, a military drama on the History Channel.
The Barbara Gordon we’ll see in Titans will be one that fans are familiar with from the classic Eisner Award-winning graphic novel The Killing Joke. Written in 1988 by Alan Moore, with art by Brian Bolland and colors by John Higgins (Watchmen), The Killing Joke explored the relationship between Batman and the Joker. It was here that one possible origin for the Joker, that of a failed comedian, was first created. Moore showed how tragedy, much like the shooting of the Wayne parents, shaped the Joker into the villain we all know today. While Barbara may have hung up her cape after being shot by the Joker, she went on to use her sharp mind and computer skills to become Oracle, first appearing in the pages of Suicide Squad, by John Ostrander. She then went on to form her own team in Birds of Prey.
Titans originally aired on the DC Universe in 2018. It was the first original show produced for the neophyte streamer. The first two seasons aired exclusively in the United States. Although the third season was announced in late 2019, there were expected delays due to the global pandemic. The demise of DC Universe as its content provider further pushed production back to begin in late 2021. The series, like almost all DC Universe’s video content, moved to Warner Brothers’ HBO Max.
Are you excited to see the addition of Barbara Gordon in Titans?
The first 2 seasons of Titans is now streaming on HBO Max.
