'Black Lightning' Renewed For Season 2

The CW has renewed Black Lightning for a second season.

The show was one of ten series picked up by The CW today, along with Arrow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Legends of Tomorrow, Dynasty, The Flash, Jane the Virgin, Riverdale, Supergirl and Supernatural. The network has left only a few shows as-yet-unrenewed, including the DC Comics adaptation iZombie, currently in its fourth year.

The family-based superhero show centers on the adventures of Jefferson Pierce, a school principal who serves in both his day job -- and at night, as the electric-powered superhero Black Lightning -- to make his city a safer place.

The series stars Cress Williams as Jefferson, along with Christine Adams as his ex-wife Lynn, Nafessa Williams as his oldest daughter Anissa, and China Anne McClain as his youngest daughter Jennifer. In the first season, both daughters have developed powers, with Anissa already suiting up as the young superhero Thunder.

"I'm not really doing a show about a superhero," showrunner Salim Akil said at the start of the season. "I'm doing a show about a man who has a family and is trying to affect his community. Someone asked me, what's the most difficult aspect of doing the show, and it really is me coming to terms with that he has powers, because I could write a whole script without him ever using his powers, which nobody wants me to do."

The series airs on The CW but does not take place in the same shared space as the network's other DC superhero shows. Producers and cast have stopped short of actually saying a crossover with Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, or DC's Legends of Tomorrow will never happen, but have acknowledged that it would be difficult to manage, since Black Lightning films in Atlanta, GA, rather than Vancouver, where the other shows all shoot.

When asked whether he sometimes wonders whether those other worlds might be out there somewhere in the multiverse, hidden from view, Akil told ComicBook.com, "You know it."

The series, based on DC's first black superhero to get his own ongoing comic, is similarly the first solo black superhero TV show from DC.

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