‘Batwoman’s Camrus Johnson Says ‘There’s More to the Story’ of Luke Fox

Batwoman continues to fire on all cylinders in the post-Crisis world, with more unexpected developments dropping in tonight’s hour, “Through the Looking-Glass.”

Picking up shortly after last week’s fateful (and fatal) showdown between Kate (Ruby Rose) and Cartwright (John Emmet Tracy), this evening finds our cowled heroine facing the emotional fallout from her actions, while techie No. 2 Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) is drawn back into the nightmare of someone else’s actions: Reggie Harris (Seth Whittaker), the man serving time for killing his father, Lucius Fox.

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At the same time, we also get the return of Julia Pennyworth (Christina Wolf) and a few more tidbits about Luke’s backstory, so it made perfect sense to chat up Johnson for some advance intel on what is coming up for the young man who, in the DC Comics canon, winds up suiting up as Batwing.

This is a great episode on the heels of the previous episode, which was also epic. This one throws a ton of new changes into the show.

Camrus Johnson: Oh yeah, 100 percent.

So originally, we thought it was the Executioner who killed Lucius, now, it’s this Reggie Harris character. What did you think when you started to see them amping up the Fox mythology

Oh, I loved it because I think both the fans and I, we’ve all been very interested in knowing more about the Lucius Fox story. And I did find it very interesting how in the Batwoman-CW take on them, Lucius Fox died before the series started. And as soon as the Executioner came in, it really shed a light on the fact that there’s more to the story that we have yet to unveil. In Luke’s mind, it was like he’s already closed this chapter of his life as much as he could have. He’s already come to terms with the fact that the person that killed his dad is behind bars. So I think that the idea that even coming back up and having to be a conversation again is very hard for him.

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And not to spoil it, we discover certain things about Reggie Harris, who’s been imprisoned, when his parole hearing comes up. It becomes a very emotional situation and you two share a scene that really kind of changes the way I think a lot of people will see Reggie and what Lucius was like.

I completely agree.

So many fans think of Lucius as Morgan Freeman from the movies or Chris Chalk from Gotham and in both cases, he was this tech guy, very stoic. And here, we hear he had such a dad side.

[What Luke learns] is so beautiful, and I think that makes the scene even more emotional, because like you said, we all sort of have this image of Lucius in our mind to be very poised. And the idea of hearing that right before he died, that he was this very loving father, like a very genuine, proud dad, just makes it so much harder to stomach that he’s gone. And it was very cool to see both sides of Reggie, because we already see that he is this convict, this bad guy, this villain. And it’s sort of the same thing as like how we got to see both sides of Lucius, or at least hear about it. We get to see both sides of his character and there is a chance that there’s good in him. So we don’t quite yet know if he’s telling the truth or not [about his innocence], we don’t know for sure if he’s good, but it seems that he’s being as honest as he can be, which is very fascinating.

I like, too, that they are bring back Julia Pennyworth, who we find out in this episode has a connection to you. Until now, he’s not really had anyone from his past…

I love the fact that Julia Pennyworth can come back, because yeah, like you said, she is his only tie to the past, really…Julia is like the proof to his past, is the proof to his connection of Alfred, Bruce Wayne and Lucius. But because we don’t really quite yet know more about Luke and Julia’s relationship, we also don’t quite yet know as much about Luke and Bruce’s relationship. So who’s to say how prepared Luke Fox really is to potentially become Batwing one day.. .or even to be superhero one day in Gotham?

Right.

So our diving into the past of Reggie and Lucius, that is first sort of thing that we’re opening about. Once we get to this episode, we come to the head of where this arc is going next week and it’s first big story arc that we’ll be getting through for Luke. So I wonder how soon we can start getting into the other things that you don’t quite yet know about Luke and start opening the door for potential hero things.

Well, I think this episode is fantastic.

Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. This is definitely one of my favorite episodes. I loved reading it and it’s just like it’s a cool mixture. Like, Nicole [Kang, who plays Mary] and I have like sort of like a drama courtroom situation and Beth (Rachel Skarsten) and Kate have this action-themed situation. So it’s like two different films put together in one episode on TV. It’s very, very good.

Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton and Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox (Colin Bentley/The CW)

And the scene with you and Nicole where Mary just puts it out there that, “No, no. You don’t get to be alone during this” was really lovely.

Oh I love working with Nicole. It helps that we’ve known each other for quite some time, both being from New York. We’ve been friends for quite a bit.

Before you go, one of my favorite things to ask actors who are playing characters that we know transition into superheroes is “Have they started talking to you about costume design and have you already done the digital scan?”

Sadly, no. [Laughs]  Again, I don’t quite yet know how soon this would what happen, or if it’s going to happen at all. I obviously pray that it does happen sooner rather than later, because I think Batwing is just an incredible character. But like I always say, I think that the character needs to earn that from us, because I don’t want Batwing to come before he’s earned.

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We still have so much Luke to learn about, that I don’t want to put a suit on him too soon. Because then we stop focusing on what happened and more on what’s about to happen. And I think I’d like to learn more about Luke’s past before I get more into Luke’s future.

Batwoman, Sundays, 8/7c, The CW