Check out your first look at Cress Williams in full costume for the Black Lightning TV series right here!
The CW’s DC Comics small screen maestro Greg Berlanti will team up with the husband-wife creative duo of Mara Brock Akil and husband Salim Akil to develop a Black Lightning TV show. The Akils come to the table with valuable dramatic experience writing and producing African-American-centric shows such as Being Mary Jane, The Game, Girlfriends, and Soul Food. The collaboration – which sees the Akils as executive producers alongside Berlanti and Sarah Schechter – will finally have DC Comics’ very first black superhero Jefferson Pierce, aka Black Lightning make his way to live action.
The show was originally in development at Fox, but now the pilot is heading to the CW's already crowded superhero schedule. and now we have our first look at Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, in full Black Lightning costume.
Check it out!
That looks pretty awesome. It's tough to really tell until we see it in action, but this looks like a great hybrid of the tech-based Atom suit on Legends of Tomorrow and the kind of superhero suit that allows for freedom of movement in combat. And you can't go wrong with the blue and black color scheme made famous by the comics.
The costume was designed by Laure Jean Shannon, whose live action superhero credits include Iron Man, Blade: Trinity, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. She's also working on Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
“I knew way too much about the world as a young boy growing up in Richmond, California," executive producer and writer Salim Akil said in a statement that came with the photo. "I was no stranger to violence, death, hopelessness or the feeling that no one cared about what was happening in my life. Comics were a great way for me to escape. I was about 13 when Black Lightning was created, and finally there was a Black Super Hero that gave a damn about our neighborhood and our lives. Resurrecting him at a time in our society when a sense of hope is lacking...Black Lightning will be that hope. And in updating the suit, it will signal to a new generation that it’s time to harness and release our power, and become our own Super Heroes.”
We'll keep you posted on more developments as we get them! If Black Lightning gets a season order from The CW, and this image indicates that it probably will, we expect that we'll see it in Fall 2017, unless they decide to hold it to run during the mini-breaks their other superhero shows take from time to time.