The network behind other popular superhero series such as The Arrow and The Flash has added The Ray to its 2017 roster on its digital channel

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The CW has beat Marvel and DC’s big-screen film universes to introduce a gay lead superhero.

At the network’s Television Critics Association panel on Thursday in Los Angeles, the channel revealed that its sister streaming site, CW Seed, will premiere a new animated show, Freedom Fighters: The Ray, centered on the Ray, a gay DC Comics superhero.

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In the comics, Raymond “Ray” Terill is a reporter gifted with light-based powers, after being exposed to a “genetic light bomb” while working on a story. Calling himself the Ray, he is recruited by Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters to fight violence and oppression.

The character first appeared in a 1973 issue of Justice League of America, the same comic on which Zack Snyder’s upcoming superhero mashup, Justice League, featuring Batman and Wonder Woman, is based.

The series will debut on the digital channel in 2017. CW president Mark Pedowitz said the character will “without a question” eventually join the network’s live-action universe, according to TVLine. In January the company did just that, by having a live-action iteration of Vixen, a DC heroine with her own animated show on CW Seed, appear on the CW’s hit superhero series Arrow.

Freedom Fighters: The Ray will be executive produced by Greg Berlanti (Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow) and Marc Guggenheim (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow).

No voice actors have been cast as of yet.