"Black Lightning," which features a family with superhuman abilities, will be coming to television screens next year. The upcoming series will reveal how a father deals with his superhero daughters coming into their own.
The patriarch of the family is Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning (Cress Williams) who stopped fighting crime 10 years ago to lead a normal life. However, he is brought back from retirement by a threat known as the One Hundred, a gang that is the major cause of crime in his local town.
When Jefferson starts crime-fighting, he doesn't know that his daughters Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain) are also manifesting their own powers. When he does learn about it, he will have a difficult time dealing with it.
"Black Lightning" executive producer Salim Akil expressed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
"It's hard for any parent to see their children grow out of the nest. That's how Jefferson will react to seeing his daughters get their powers. In a way, he'll be a little fearful, because he understands what having powers is and what it means."
Akil further explained that it would be like a parent seeing off their children into the world once they become adults. They are fearful because they feel that their children will be vulnerable to the outside world. Jefferson, being someone with superpowers, knows how it feels to be feared and misjudged by people, so he fears the same thing will happen to his daughters.
Jefferson has electrical abilities and can deliver lightning-like blasts. Jennifer has some of her father's electrical powers but also has a new ability that turns her entire body into electricity. Meanwhile, Anissa has the power to manipulate her body's density at will.
"Black Lightning" is expected to premiere on The CW in early 2018.
