'Black Lightning' Origin Trailer Released

It may be midseason finale week for the The CW Arrowverse shows, but a new trailer for the upcoming Black Lightning is giving something else to look forward to in January.

This new "Origins Trailer" for the series has a lot of the same footage that we've seen in another recently released promo with a brief look at Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) taking to the streets as the hero Black Lightning while a voiceover reminds that "we knew this day would come," with that day being the return of the hero. This new trailer, however, gives us another look Black Lightning in action. You can check out the trailer above.

In Black Lightning, Pierce is a former vigilante hero who has stepped away from that life and, for the past nine years, has been living quietly as a family man and high school principal. However, when his daughters end up entangled with and in trouble because of the city's gang, the ominously named the One Hundred, Pierce must come out of retirement to suit up as the hero with the powers to harness and control electricity, Black Lightning. Promo photos for the show's pilot episode, "Dark Matter of My Brain," give a good look at Pierce in costume as he hero as well as some of the characters he will be going up against.

Black Lightning is set to debut on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 in what has previously been the timeslot for Legends of Tomorrow, at 9/8c after The Flash with Legends of Tomorrow returning in February. And while Black Lightning will air alongside shows that are part of the network's shared Arrowverse universe, the show is presently not connected to the other series. However, despite not being part of the Arrowverse now, showrunner Salim Akil hopes that there will be opportunities in the future, once Black Lightning gets established.

"The storytelling is a bit more political," Akil said. "It's topical, and it's a little grittier. It doesn't mean that down the road there won't be visits."

Black Lightning debuts on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 at 9/8c after The Flash on The CW.