Black Lightning Goes on Hiatus Until April 12th

The fourth and final season of Black Lightning is well underway and after a turbulent third season that saw Freeland both occupied by the A.S.A. and under attack from the Markovians, this season of The CW series the challenges faced by the Pierce family become more personal than ever. No one in Black Lightning's family has been left unscathed by the trauma they experienced in Season 3 -- from Jefferson's (Cress Williams) grief to Jennifer's (China Anne McClain) embrace of her powers -- but fans eagerly tuning in to see what's next for this heroic family will have to wait a little bit longer. The series is going on a very brief hiatus and will not return until April 12th.

For the next three weeks -- March 22nd, March 29th, and April 5th -- there will not be a new episode of Black Lightning aired. This is, in part, to accommodate the three-episode event, Bulletproof. The event kicked off Monday night, taking All American's usual time slot, and will do the same next week with Black Lightning re-broadcasting "The Book of Ruin: Chapter One: Picking up the Pieces." On Monday, March 29th, Bulletproof will finish its run and the one-hour special All American Stories 2 will air in Black Lightning's time slot instead.

Black Lightning isn't the only Arrowverse series getting a bit of a schedule jostling in the coming weeks. Superman & Lois will go on a brief break from May 23rd to May 18th due to a COVID-19-related shut down earlier in the production schedule for that series. Supergirl will be filling in, with its sixth and final season debuting on Tuesday, March 30th in that time slot. Outside of the Arrowverse, Riverdale is also going on a break. Riverdale will air its last new episode, "Chapter Eighty-Six: The Pincushion Man" on March 31st, then will remain off the schedule through July 7th. The new series Kung Fu will be taking over Riverdale's time slot during that time.

When Black Lightning does return, fans will have the backdoor pilot for Painkiller to look forward to. The episode is set to be the seventh episode of the season.

"I'm excited about the whole world that Salim has created and how he wants to show different cultures," Khalil Payne/Painkiller actor Jordan Calloway said to E! News recently. "He also wants to show different ethnic backgrounds. Also, different colors of Black, not just that Black is all the same, but all of the different, other aspects of what makes Black."

Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9/8c on the CW. New episodes of the series return on Monday, April 12th.