If you were worried that CW’s Arrowverse was going to get too crowded with the addition of a whole new family of super heroes, don’t worry. Black Lightning and his kids exist in a different universe than Oliver, Barry, and the rest of the gang. Sure, there’s a chance that they could eventually meet through the earth hopping that brought them together with Super Girl, but it’s a long shot for now. In the meantime, it’s just going to be Black Lightning and his daughters against the evil forces and gang violence that surrounds them.
While I’ve been skeptical about whether Black Lightning is enough to carry his own show, there are a couple big factors here that give me a lot of hope. First, Cress Williams is a great actor, and second, Salim Akil & Mara Brock Akil are great showrunners and they did a fantastic job in the past on shows like Girlfriends, and its subsequent spin-off, The Game.
BLACK LIGHTNING –– Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) is a man wrestling with a secret. As the father of two daughters and principal of a charter high school that also serves as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero to his community.
Nine years ago, Pierce was a hero of a different sort. Gifted with the superhuman power to harness and control electricity, he used those powers to keep his hometown streets safe as the masked vigilante Black Lightning. However, after too many nights with his life on the line, and seeing the effects of the damage and loss that his alter ego was inflicting on his family, he left his Super Hero days behind and settled into being a principal and a dad. Choosing to help his city without using his superpowers, he watched his daughters Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain) grow into strong young women, even though his marriage to their mother, Lynn (Christine Adams), suffered.
Almost a decade later, Pierce’s crime-fighting days are long behind him…or so he thought. But with crime and corruption spreading like wildfire, and those he cares about in the crosshairs of the menacing local gang The One Hundred, Black Lightning returns — to save not only his family, but also the soul of his community.
Based on the characters from DC, BLACK LIGHTNING is from Berlanti Productions and Akil Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti (“Arrow,” “The Flash”), Salim Akil & Mara Brock Akil (“Being Mary Jane,” “The Game,” “Girlfriends”), and Sarah Schechter (“Arrow,” “The Flash”). The Black Lightning character was created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden.