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If you can’t wait for the CW premiere of Black Lightning, you won’t have to. The TV series makes its debut on January 13 at the National Museum of African American History and Culture during Warner Bros. “DC in D.C.” weekend. Insert tears of joy here.
The two-day event—which takes place on Friday, January 12 and Saturday, January 13—is described as “a landmark pop culture event that brings together the worlds of entertainment and public service to illuminate the story of America and current issues through the lens of comics and Super Heroes.” Attending the Smithsonian premiere will be star Cress Williams (Hart of Dixie, Friday Night Lights) alongside co-stars China Anne McClain (House of Payne), Nafessa Williams (Twin Peaks), Christine Adams (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Marvin “Krondon” Jones III (Harry’s Law), Damon Gupton (Bates Motel, Criminal Minds) and James Remar (Gotham, Sex and the City).
If you’re not hip yet, Williams stars as Jefferson Pierce (aka Black Lightning), who happens to be the first Black DC Comics character to have his own stand-alone comic. The series finds him as a retired superhero slash high school principal with electric powers before returning to crimefighting.
“The bare bones details are that he’s a metahuman, meaning he was born with these abilities, and discovered them as a child,” Williams explained in a July interview with Entertainment Weekly. “He created, with the help of a friend, Black Lightning, and was fighting crime in his community for quite a few years before he hung it up for his family. As we pick up the story, he has hung up his suit for about nine years, and then circumstances cause him to pick it back up again.”
He continued by calling his role a “dream come true.”
“I’ve always been a superhero fan as a child and as an adult,” he shared. “We’re in this age where it’s a genre both in film and television, so it’s a bucket list thing of mine to play a superhero. I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to come about, because I’m no longer in my 20s. So selfishly I was extremely excited.”
Can’t make it to NMAAHC for the “DC in D.C.” premiere? All good. The series premiere airs on The CW just three days later at 9 p.m. ET on January 16.
Watch the latest trailer below.
