'Black Lightning' Introduces a Familiar Arrowverse Locale

It appears that Freeland is home to a Big Belly Burger.

The fast-food franchise, which originated in DC Comics but has become popularized by its many appearances on Arrow and The Flash, made a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo appearance during Jefferson's training simulation in tonight's episode, "Lawanda: The Book of Burial."

Big Belly Burger, which first appeared in the Superman titles in the '80s, is THE fast food joint of the CWverse.

A pastiche of Bob's Big Boy, the original mascot (who has been seen a couple of times on fliers in The Flash) looked a lot like then-editor Andrew Helfer.

We've seen lots of Big Belly Burgers, first on Arrow and later (and often) on The Flash. It's kind of the official meal for most of the metas Team Flash keeps in containment. At one point they announced that one was coming to National City, but Big Belly Burger has still remained much less common on Supergirl (and less common still on the time-hopping DC's Legends of Tomorrow).

Per a season two episode of The Flash, every Earth in the DC/CW multiverse has a Big Belly Burger.

While Black Lightning is not expected to cross over with other Arrowverse shows on The CW, there have been questions since it was in development (from The Flash executive producer Greg Berlanti) as to whether the series might at least take place in the same multiverse as the others and have an Earth-number designation so that fans could entertain the idea.

When ComicBook.com asked showrunner Salim Akil the question, he said that as a fan, he had of course considered it in the back of his mind.

"You know it," he said with a smile. "You know it. Yes."

Supergirl, for those who don't remember, began as a show that was nominally unrelated to the other CW superhero shows. It filmed in Los Angeles (versus Vancouver for the rest of the series) and aired on a different network altogether (CBS, who co-own The CW). Eventually, it was revealed that while Supergirl did not occupy the same space as the other heroes, her world (named Earth-38) was in fact one of the Earths in the multiverse previously discovered on The Flash. This has allowed the biggest crossover stories, like "Invasion!" and "Crisis on Earth-X," to include Supergirl.

Black Lightning airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Tuesday nights, following episodes of The Flash on The CW.