The Black Lightning TV series is now part of the CW’s ever expanding superhero lineup.

It looks like Fox won’t be expanding their DC superhero lineup with the Black Lightning TV series they picked up in August last year. According to Deadline, they put the series in turnaround after deciding not to pick up the pilot. However, the CW will be picking it up and adding it to their superhero show line-up, which includes The Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. Which, let’s be honest, makes a whole lot of sense. Greg Berlanti, who developed and produces all four of those series for the CW, will be producing Black Lightning as well, so this move will be keeping it in the family, so to speak.

There’s no word on a start date for the series yet, but now that the CW has picked it up, things may start happening fairly soon now.

UPDATE: 8-8-16 Fox Expands Superhero Slate

Less than a week after announcing the Black Lightning TV series and starting to shop it around, Fox has picked up the series with a pilot commitment. That short intake of breath you hear, followed by silence is everyone in the world hoping that this won’t become yet another Fox TV series that goes to pilot, or even a first season, gets shuffled around aimlessly, and then canceled before it’s able to find footing.

The series, being written by husband and wife duo Mara Brock and Salim Akil, isn’t the only upcoming superhero series on Fox’s docket, as they’ve also got Legion coming to their cable arm, FX.

Black Lightning will also be joining Gotham, which is going into its third season.

Original Post 8-1-16: Lightning strikes twice in this town — and the second time I strike — it’s for keeps!

Deadline has revealed that Berlanti Productions is back with a Black Lightning TV series, the story of a retired vigilante hero yanked back into the fray by his daughter as she struggles with her passion for justice and hatred of the corruption claiming the streets. Black Lightning centers on Jefferson Pierce, a metahuman with the power of electrokinesis. The Black Lightning TV series will begin years after Pierce hung up the super suit and re-dedicated his life to teaching.

The Black Lightning Comics

In the comics, Pierce retired his secret identity when his actions lead to the death of an innocent bystander during a battle with gun-wielding gangsters, but we have yet to discover how closely the television series will follow the comic books.

When one of Pierce’s students is murdered, he adopts the costumed identity “Black Lightning” to fight against “street slime with delusions of grandeur” (Black Lightning Volume 2 #1) on his student’s behalf. Years later, he would tell fellow superhero Mister Terrific that he chose the name Black Lightning because he “was the only one…around” (meaning black superheroes) at the time, and he “wanted to make sure everyone knew who they were dealing with.”

We can safely assume that the series will be strongly centered on social justice, highly relevant to the race struggles plaguing the world, and we may also assume (and hope for) crossovers between Berlanti’s other productions, DC’s Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. The Flash and Black Lightning have a somewhat limited, but interesting, history together, so hopefully, we can bank on at least one crossover between the two. Additionally, Black Lightning is looking to join another black superhero who toplines his own TV series, Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix.

The Golden Age of Comic Books took place in America from the mid-1930’s to the early 1950’s. Though many science fiction comic books that came out in the 1960’s or later became wildly influential, if I included everything I wanted to, this article would quickly transmogrify into an encyclopedia (fun word, right?). Additionally, because this is Sci-Fi Addicts, I thought it would be appropriate to make a Venn Diagram style article by overlapping the timelines and publications of Golden Age of Comic Books with the first Golden Age of Science Fiction. [Click to read more…]

As of now, we know that Black Lightning has been making the rounds looking for the right network to snap it up, and until then, no hints as to when production will begin have been leaked. Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil will be executive producing the series along with Berlanti.

Featured Image: DC Comics