The bad news? Fox has passed on Greg Berlanti‘s latest DC Comics television series, “Black Lightning“. The good news? It seems likely that The CW will be picking up the series instead. According to Deadline, negotiations are currently taking place to shift the African-American superhero series over to DC’s biggest home on television. If all goes as planned, it will become the sixth DC Comics series on the network*.
“Black Lightning” follows a former superhero by the name of Jackson Pierce who takes up crime-fighting once more. The series originally was not going to be a part of the DC TV Universe inhabited by The CW’s “Arrow“, “The Flash“, “Supergirl“, and “Legends of Tomorrow” and CW Seed’s animated offerings “Vixen” and “Constantine“. Now that it will likely live on The CW, instead of Fox, that will probably change.
If so, it will offer up the first DC CW series centered around a person of color, adding some much needed diversity to a lineup of mostly white heroes. Mind you there are some POC heroes currently inhabiting this television universe, but all are supporting characters (John Diggle, Martian Manhunter, Vibe, etc.) or part of an ensemble (Vixen, Firestorm, etc.). Black Lightning would also be the DCTU’s first veteran hero and its first full-on family man. Sorry Diggle, but I don’t count you having a kid when you no longer spend time with him. Pierce has two daughters and they will undoubtedly be an integral part of the series.
This certainly isn’t the first series that The CW has scooped up from other networks. “Supergirl” (CBS), “Riverdale” (Fox), and “Constantine” (NBC) all originally hailed from other homes in some fashion or another. Once the switch occurs, the project will be off to the races and presumably arrive sometime during the 2017-2018 season. Mara Brock Akil & Salim Akil (“Being Mary Jane“) have been set as the showrunners, with Berlanti and his usual team executive producing.
* – For some reason, everyone seems to forget that “iZombie” is a DC Comics series.
