The CW’s Batwoman has added a surprising name to the call-sheet, as MSNBC host Rachel Maddow joins the cast. Maddow will take on the role of Vesper Fairchild, a snarky Gotham City radio and TV personality with ties to the superhero world in both the DC Comics source material and the CW’s Arrow-verse. In the comics, Vesper becomes romantically involved with Bruce Wayne before she is murdered on the orders Lex Luthor, who is the President of the United States at the time. Classic scenario. The character has a much smaller presence on the small screen, where she is only mentioned by name as a former fling with Arrow‘s Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell).

Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries told THR a bit about how Maddow’s version of the radio personality—who will reportedly never actually appear on-screen—fits into the series.

“We consider Vesper Fairchild to be 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.”

Batwoman takes place in a Gotham City three years after the appearance of Batman. Bruce Wayne’s cousin, Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), returns home to find a city in turmoil being guarded by a paramilitary force called the Crows and threatened by a whimsical madwoman named Alice (Rachel Skarsten).

Here is Maddow’s own announcement:

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

via Collider