Although it was not a screening for the pilot episode that was filmed earlier this year, Warner Bros. provided a preview of the upcoming superhero drama Black Lightning during Preview Night at San Diego Comic-Con International.
In the preview, it is slightly different from what was seen during the Upfronts in May, and clocking it in only around 90 seconds, the updated promo features mostly on Jefferson Pierce’s (Cress Williams) life of crime he left behind. It features and emphasizes on the reasons why he left it behind up until the neighborhood he’s in starts to become more dangerous and calls him to bring justice once more. In the Comic-Con sizzle reel, it showcases more on superheroic visual effects and imagery, though it still shows the Pierce family firmly. The newer trailer, which hasn’t been released online, showed the different villains that will lead Pierce to “return and light up the darkness once more,” as the trailer narrates the return of Black Lightning.
With Black Lightning entering a crowded roster in The CW (being the fifth DC show in the network), the series is expected to show us a black superhero but with the notion of an old superhero returning as a crime fighter will give the show a different and unique tone. Credit is also due to the director, Salim Akil, who brought a different tone which hasn’t been seen in the other Greg Berlanti-produced shows.
We should expect more news for the new series this Saturday when Warner Bros Television presents their panel for the show with Executive Producer Salim & Mara Akil, and stars Cress Williams, Christine Adams, Nafessa Williams, China Anne McClain. Black Lightning will premiere at midseason on The CW.
Check out the new synopsis for Black Lightning:
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.
