New 'Black Lightning' TV Spot Released

The CW DC Comics air their midseason finale's this week, but the network is already giving audiences a taste of what they can look forward to in January and that includes a new television spot for the upcoming Black Lightning.

In what appears to be an expanded version of the short promo released during last week's four-part Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Earth-X," this new spot gives a brief look at Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) taking to the streets as the hero Black Lightning while a voice over reminds us him that "we knew this day would come," this day being the return of the hero. You can check out the spot above.

For those not familiar, in Black Lightning, Pierce has stepped away from his life as a vigilante and for the past nine years he has been quietly living as a family man and high school principal. However, when his daughters find themselves in trouble with the city's gang, the One Hundred, Pierce finds himself coming out of retirement to suit up as the electricity-controlling and harnessing vigilante, Black Lightning. You can see a little bit more of Pierce in costume as well as some of the other characters in the series in the recently released promo photos for "Dark Matter of My Brain," the show's pilot episode.

The promo also touches on the idea of hope, a theme that showrunner Salim Akil has said that he hopes Black Lightning will bring to audiences as it's what the original comic book -- the first stand-alone title for an African American DC Comics hero -- gave to him as a child.

"I knew way too much about the world as a young boy growing up in Richmond, California," Akil said. "I was no stranger to death, hopelessness or the feeling that no one cared about what was happening in my life. Comics were a great way for me to escape. I was about 13 when Black Lightning was created, and finally there was a black superhero that gave a damn about our neighborhood and our lives. Resurrecting him at a time in our society when a sense of hope is lacking...Black Lightning will be that hope."

Black Lightning will premiere on Tuesday, January 16 at 9/8c on The CW.