CW Reveals Black Lightning Trailer

CW has another series based on a DC Entertainment property coming to the network. Black Lightning follows a high school principal who moonlighted as a superhero. He gave up the costume but found himself drawn back to it when violence escalated in the streets. You can check out the full trailer below.

The series stars Cress Williams (Code Black) as Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning alongside China Anne McClain (Grown Ups) and Nafessa Williams (Code Black) who play his daughters, Jennifer and Anissa. The series is produced by Greg Berlanti, who is known for his other comic adaptations on CW: Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and Arrow.

However, although the other DC adaptations exist in the same universe and have crossover episodes, for now, Black Lightning will be on its own: "Black Lightning at this time is not part of the Arrowverse, it's a separate thing," CW's Network president Mark Pedowitz explained (via The Wrap). "It will not be part of a five-way crossover. However, we will be doing another four-way crossover this year."

The character Black Lightning first appeared in Black Lightning #1 in 1977. He was created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden. He has an electricity-based powerset, and much like the trailer shows, he's determined to clean up the streets of crime.

At this time, there is no information for when this new series will debut.

This actually looks really good. Could be a better Black Hero series, than Luke Cage. I like LC (more so than DD), but a lot of people didn't.

Looks pretty good sad it's not in the same universe as the others though but wouldn't rule out a crossover at some point probably depends how well the series goes down

I'm optomistic.

@saintwildcard: luke cage is my favorite series next to daredevil. Jessica Jones was a little too emo for me and iron fist was written poorly. I wanna know who they picked to play Tobias Whale, black lightening's nemesis.

looks bad imo

@thorthunder98: not sure why they bother to say that black lightening isn't part of the arrowverse when it is an eventuality. Flash, Arrow and Supergirl would be the best team ups.

Looks good to me. I think the main reason it's not in Arrowverse is cause it films in Georgia while the others film in Vancouver.

@ravenvice01: I mean they literally can't rule anything out when there's an infinite number of Earths it's got to happen eventually even if just a small cameo or something it wouldn't be hard

I think it looks pretty good. I like grounded, street level superhero stories.

But I think he's lying about Black Lightning not being a part of the Arrowverse. I think they are planning to connect it to the other Arrowverse shows, but are just trying to keep it a secret so it's a surprise later.

Personally opinion but DC really shot themselves in the foot by putting these shows on CW.

@righteous300: How so?, all the shows (Arrow, the Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl), have been renewed and there's the animated shows (Vixen, and soon Constantine, and the Ray).

@righteous300: Hmm what network do you prefer the shows too be on syfy or netflix?

Looks surprisngly really good.

seeing as WB owns DC television and CW and it is one of the very few TV stations that actually gives their shows an ACTUAL chance to grow, its easily the best safe choice tbh

@darkonast @NightFang3 @rahiem9123: I think that's my main problem with it all. It's so safe. Like we're getting shows featuring different characters, different tone, but it all still feels the same and extremely repetitive. Story wise it doesn't seem like we're really getting much variety. Like for example, Marvel currently has shows on Netflix, FX, and ABC(?) and they all feel different from each other. I understand they can take those risk because the general appeal they have from the movies is there, but it sucks we can't get the same for DC.

DC doesn't trust, other channels so far anymore , Constantine (easily the best rated Comic book show at the time) was cancelled even though it pulled in 12-15 million viewers a night , plus WB literally has stakes only in CW , TNT , SyFy and FX and very small amount in FOX (gotham and Lucifer)

Looks decent, I'll give it a go.

Stupid should've made a Static Shock show instead

Looks good for what it is, but I'm burnt out on the CW formula superhero show. I might check out the pilot just the same, though.

@marvelanddcfan24: There might be rights issues with the Milestone characters and they can keep things small with BL, like dealing with normal criminals and not major supervillains.

The more I watch this trailer, the more hyped I become.

Why isn't his lightning black.

To quote many other people on this thread, "Looks good."

The show look good but the costume is terrible not only in look but in it being armor.

@nightfang3: very true idk really liked SS as a kid would be awesome to see

Don't like how it a not a part of the Arrowverse. The biggest draw to these shows is the connectivity. The crossovers, references, etc.

@marvelanddcfan24 maybe but this brings a different tone than we woukd have gotten with Static. Though the social commentary could have been the same going with an older hero introduces a generational approach that wouldn't have been possible with Static

@redwingx I'm assuming you're joking on that....but if you're curious on his name choice read Infinite Crisis #7 where he explains his codename choice to Mister Terrific

@dernman but the trailer shows us why he would go with the armor given the lack of bullet protection his old, traditional suit provided. So looks like unlike his comic counterpart he can't easily make electrostatic force fields and the armor allows him to do that, though curious to see more of his early career to see how well he could produce electric punches and standard bolts or if the armor is there to help givehim the necessary juice for more consistent uses of those as well

I've only got two problems with the look; 1) the need for a glowing "cod piece" section and 2) the lack of at least a mask/hood/cowl that covers the back and top of his head. Yes that would be a deviation from the comics but just the visor doesn't really work with the decision to go with an armored look. You'd think in that case he'd want to cover his neck and head as well. Don't have a problem with the visor itself, just seems like it should be connected rather than just looking like a pair of safety googles

Why does it need to be connected with the other shows? I mean what is so bad about having a separate show from the others?

@watcher5000: Nothing wrong with it.

Not bad

so what villains do we expect will be on the show. Some of the obvious would probably be:

1. Whale (Tobias Whale) - seems obvious as he's leader of the 100 in the comics

2. Warhog

3. Painkiller

4. Doctor Polaris

5. Crowbar

6. Black Mass

7. Masters of Disaster - cause they are enemies of BL's comics team the Outsiders; would be a means to give BL his own "rogues" given the full team only came together once or twice in Flash and being all elemental based themselves would lead to a cool battle

There are also 2 characters I think would bring some cool aspects to the show:

1. Shadow Thief - maybe not as a pure villain but done in a similar way to Cold on Flash

2. Silent Majority - could be used very effectively for the social conflicts and commentary that will very likely be part of the show

@watcher5000: agreed. The best thing about Legion is that it can run an entire story without fear of being too convoluted.

It looks better than I expected. Don't care for the glow in the costume but oh well.

I have also thought some of these shows should be on other networks.

Syfy, TNT, FX,

Im surprised they are doing Black Lightning instead of a Milestone character particularly Static. It could be argued even though Black Lightning has been around longer Static is more popular.

I think a better series (mini series)

Would be Icon on Syfy,FX where we'd see him as a present day hero but also we'd see what brought him to earth . His life as a slave coming here in 1839 (I think) his life with his adopted mom,brothers and sisters, fighting in the civil war his life in the early 1900's, 1930's 1940's,1960's Civil Rights Movements,his getting married, loosing his wife to cancer, his relationship with the original Shadow Cabinet in the late 1800's early 1900's. I think this as a series would be much more interesting.

Also I think a Xombi or a Shadow Cabinet series would be equally as cool on either FX, TNT or Syfy

Much better than expected.

This looks much better than I expected. Downside is I'll have to add yet another comic show to my lineup.

OMG YES.

Black Lightning has been one of my favorite characters since I was a little kid.

This looks better than I was even hoping for!

I'm not sure why, but this didn't do it for me. I'll still give it a shot, hype is way less now.

Also I agree with the people saying this should've been Static Shock.

Black Lighting looks more like Black Bolt than Marvel's Inhumans Black Bolt.

Also this should have been a Static Shock show.

Looks like someone saw Netflix Luke Cage, wanted to do a DC/CW version and somehow managed to make it cheesier.

I really liked what I just saw. Definitely going to give it a go.

They didn't need to go with the armor for protection. They could have used the same basic special affect that they're using for the armor with very minor adjustments and say that's the bullets hitting his field which is invisible unless hit. Which is good because then you can say the more power he adds to it the more he can deflect. It would explain why one minute he might survive a bullet and the next he's getting hurt by a punch. You wouldn't get that with the armor. Also then you wouldn't have to come up with some dumb explanation as to how some teacher would even have something like that. The suit is just fugly and it makes him look ridiculous.

This...this looks very interesting to me. Looks like I might have a superhero show to follow on CW.

MCU Luke Cage vs. CW Black Lightning, I already see it coming. Also cool trailer.

look for CW to ruin it somehow... they have successfully ruined 3 out of 3 characters, thats a 100% success rate folks.

It's just so weird. He looks and acts like a grown ass man, it's so out of the norm for the CW.

Never read a single appearance of BL, but I'll give this a go.

Knew people would compare this to Luke Cage. They literally have nothing in common besides being black.

The trailer looks pretty good and I'll give it a try.

I just hope the network don't make the same mistakes they did with Arrow (supporting cast member actually headlines the show) or Flash (oh it's the same villain in a new outfit essentially)

they're having rights issues.

it does look a bit weird but not horrible too me personally. Didnt BL originally use tech and eventually internalize the power?