The CW showed off Black Lightning, its newest show in their Berlanti-helmed DC superhero lineup, and we live-blogged the San Diego Comic-Con panel!
Starring Cress Williams as Black Lightning, the high school principal and retired superhero who once again becomes a vigilante for justice, the CW’s fifth live-action superhero show on its roster also features Disney Channel darling China Anne McClain and Nafessa Williams as his two daughters — one a teacher and the other a student at his school.
4:57 PST: We just saw the Black Lightning trailer! No surprises here: it was awesome.
4:59 PST: The cast is being introduced. The executive producers are also here — they worked on your favorite naughties comedy Girlfriends.
4:59 PST: Salim Akil, the executive producer, says that “Jefferson Pierce is the epitome of what Black men are… This family is the Obamas of the superhero world.” Black Lightning is going to go save the neighborhoods that no one else wants to.
5:01 PST: Cress Williams, our new Black Lightning, is used to playing a lot of bad guys but this time he’s “changing teams! I’m on the side of light.” Cress says that Black Lightning is trying to save the world, “one person at a time.” He’s working from the inside out.
5:03 PST: Christine Adams says that even though it’s a Black family, the stories transcend to universal themes that all people can connect with as human beings.
5:05 PST: EP Mara Brock Akil says, “We all have a choice, we can use our power for good or we can use our power for bad, and some of that is circumstantial to what’s happening in our neighborhood.”
5:07 PST: The EPs plan on addressing violence both to and within the Black community.
5:09 PST: Nafessa Williams’s character wants to follow in her father’s footsteps but also forge her own path.
5:09 PST: China’s character doesn’t have superpowers yet — she’s just a teenager at the start. But she starts to develop superpowers and that takes her on a new journey.
5:09 PST: Christine Adams’s character is the ex-wife of Jefferson Pierce. She doesn’t have superpowers, but she acts as the glue that holds the family together.
5:11 PST: The most scary and most fun thing Cress had to do as a superhero was to just look cool stepping off a building. He says it’s really hard to look cool doing it.
5:14 PST: What makes the character of Jefferson so interesting is that he is grounded, and that makes his story relevant right now. The EPs were able to relate his community and journey. “I think the thing that is going to make this so much fun is that this is going to come from an authentic Black male voice. I think this will set it apart from any other show. through this show we are able to give something back to the culture, both Black culture and the American culture.”