Dougray Scott on Batwoman haters: ‘Who cares what they think?’

When rising star Ruby Rose was cast in the title role, she was subjected to so many hateful comments that she decided to delete her Twitter account.

The series about a lesbian woman who becomes a Gotham City crimefighter was bound to trigger so-called "meninists," but co-star Scott is entirely unfazed.

He told RadioTimes.com: "You’re always going to get haters. You’re always going to get trolls who say, 'Why are you showing a lesbian character?' Who, quite frankly, cares what they think? It’s a good thing.

"It’s a major step forward but it’s representative of the world we live in, so it’s about time and I think it’s a good first step. I think the more relevant you make these characters, the more popular they will be."

The superhero genre has risen to unprecedented levels of pop culture dominance in the last decade, but only recently have steps been made to diversify its ranks.

The success of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel have paved the way for more female-led stories, while 2018's Black Panther and the upcoming Shang-Chi shine a light on cultures outside of the West.

Batwoman is leading the charge in terms of LGBT+ representation, as the first openly gay superhero to lead their own television series.

After being kicked out of military academy, Kate Kane (Rose) travels the world learning to fight, echoing a similar journey made by her cousin years earlier: Bruce Wayne.

Scott plays her father, Jacob, a stern former military colonel who now runs a security firm and becomes the target of a dangerous gang.

"As tough as he is with Kate, he loves her, and he has a huge amount of time for her. Her being gay could have been a problem with any other guy with that kind of background, but he accepted her for who she was, and he loves her regardless of her sexuality," Scott tells RadioTimes.com.

The complicated relationship between Jacob and Kate, strained since the death of her mother and sister at a young age, has been a prominent story in the Batwoman comic books.

While this series marks her first live-action appearance and thus her entry into mainstream consciousness, this version of Batwoman made her debut on the page back in 2006.

The first season of the show draws heavily from her comic book stories, but fans shouldn't expect a beat-for-beat adaptation.

Scott added: "You use the comic books as a springboard to tell your story. While you want to remain faithful and true to the characters and the storyline, I think you have a certain amount of artistic licence to go off in different directions.

"Without giving too much away, I think people will be happy with the depictions of the characters and the story that we tell, but along the way there’ll be surprises."

For a DC Comics series made by The CW, those surprises can include cameos from a number of other notable superheroes from companion shows The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and Black Lightning.

Sure enough, Batwoman gets stuck into the crossover action in her first season, taking part in the ambitious event titled Crisis on Infinite Earths.

"Batwoman is the only character who gets involved in the crossover on this particular occasion, but in the future, there may be other characters that cross over," Scott teases.

Despite efforts from some to take the show down, which include a bombardment of its user scores on IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, Batwoman has already been renewed for a second season.

Batwoman airs on E4 at 9pm on Sunday 29th March