The CW is set to premiere Black Lightning in just a few weeks, so the network has seen fit to give audiences another look at the series with a new trailer featuring music by Kendrick Lamar. That's a solid way to begin a marketing blitz as we round the corner on 2017 and roll into the New Year. The new series has a lot going for it in these early trailers, but it also has a lot riding on it, as the network's first superhero series led by a black actor. From the look of the trailers, it seems as though the show is set to make a big splash when it finally premieres on January 16.
More and more, the Black Lightning promos are revealing details about the hero and his particular circumstances, along with a look at his special abilities. Showrunner Salim Akil is putting an emphasis on the history of Jefferson Pierce as the titular hero and the fact that he's been in retirement for nearly a decade. That reshapes the CW superhero dynamic in a major way, as, up until now, most heroes have moved along a fairly typical path from origin story to full-time superhero. For Pierce, it's more a question of why did he get out of the business of being a costumed crime fighter and, more importantly, what brings him back?
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The new trailer doesn't necessarily offer viewers a great deal of new information, but it does position itself around those same questions. Pierce gets the biggest push back into the business of busting bad guys from an unlikely source: James Remar, who plays Peter Gambi, a mentor/quartermaster of sorts who is perhaps the biggest advocate of Black Lightning's return.
The rest of the new promo delivers an idea of the world of Black Lightning, and how the character has to balance his return to crime fighting with the responsibilities of a grown man with two teenage daughters and an entire high school under his supervision. That's a far cry from most of the other heroes in the network's Arrowverse, which is just one of the many ways this new series seems poised to stand apart from them, and part of the reason why, for the time being anyway, Black Lightning won't be a part of the Arrowverse proper.
Still, there's a lot to look forward to with this new series, and it appears as though The CW has an intriguingly different take on the standard superhero formula with Black Lightning. With any luck, the series will prove to be a welcome addition to the network's growing list of DC Comics-inspired shows.
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Black Lightning premieres Tuesday, January 16 @9pm on The CW.
Source: The CW