Savannah Welch tapped to play Barbara Gordon in Titans season 3

Savannah Welch will assume the role of Barbara Gordon in the upcoming third season of HBO Max’s Titans series.

Savannah Welch, best known for her role in the History Channel military drama Six, has been cast as Barbara Gordon in the third season of HBO Max’s Titans .

The show-runners will be depicting Barbara as the former Batgirl who was shot and paralyzed by the Joker, who is now Gotham City’s Police Commissioner. Like her fellow disgruntled member of the Bat Family, Dick Grayson, Barbara will also have a rather contentious relationship with Bruce Wayne. Following Dick’s return to Gotham, a romance between the two will be rekindled, starting a new crime fighting partnership. It is not known as of yet if this portrayal of Barbara will also feature her Oracle alter-ego. Though reportedly, she will be aiding Dick and the rest of the Titans in some form.

Aside from her role in Six, in which she played an amputee Marine vet, Welch has also appeared in films such as Boyhood and Tree of Life. After losing one of her legs in an accident in 2016, Welch herself became an amputee. She has since become a spokesperson for the disability community.

This will be the third live-action depiction of Barbara Gordon on television. The first being Yvonne Craig’s fan favorite performance as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon in the Adam West Batman show of the 1960s. The second was Dina Meyer’s highly-acclaimed portrayal of Oracle/Barbara Gordon in the short-lived Birds of Prey television series on The WB. Meyer briefly reprised her role in a cameo appearance during last season’s big Arrowverse crossover, “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

With it’s third season, Titans will be jumping from the now defunct DC Universe streaming platform to HBO Max, joining other DC superhero shows like Doom Patrol and Stargirl. While the first season’s depiction of female characters was…problematic, season 2 was a huge improvement that beefed up the roles of leading ladies Anna Diop (Starfire), Conor Leslie (Donna Troy), and Dove (Minka Kelly).

Landing an actress who is a woman with disabilities to portray a character with some of those same physical attributes is absolutely a step in the right direction. Following a delay in filming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, season 3 is currently in production and is expected to wrap up in June 2021.

Are you excited to see Barbara Gordon join Titans? Let us know in the comments section below.