Black Lightning is among the latest DC Comics property to debut on the small screen, with the series set to premiere on The CW next year. And with Black Lightning‘s rich comic history – first appearing on the page in April of 1977 – there are plenty of supporting characters that could possibly appear on the show.
Videos by ComicBook.com
According to one of Jefferson Pierce’s creators, Tony Isabella, viewers could very well see some fan-favorite characters on the show.
While at a panel during the East Coast Black Age Of Comics Convention, Isabella teased that the season’s rumored Big Bad, corrupt politician Tobias Whale, will be adapted to television in a faithful way.
“I think he is [involved in the show],” Isabella explained, “but I think he will be more like the version you’ve seen before.”
In the comics, Whale is responsible for Jefferson Pierce becoming Black Lightning in the fist place: Tobias Whale is an African American albino, who worked his way up from the rackets to head the Metropolis branch of The 100. When school teacher Jefferson Pierce spoke out against the 100’s drug trafficking, Whale decided to make an example of one of his students.
Another character that Isabella would like the show to adapt is Metamorpho, a hero with the ability to transform into a variety of elements.
“I got to tell you, I love the idea of Metamorpho at some point in the future. I love the character. I’m trying to convince DC that some of their b and c characters, they don’t necessarily have to do them themselves. I know a studio like Asylum, they would love to do a DC or Marvel superhero, but their budgets are not Warner Brothers budgets. But Metamorpho you could do. With the technology to do Sharknado, you could do Metamorpho.”
But one of the most-anticipated characters from Black Lightning’s orbit is Virgil Hawkins, a.k.a. the teenaged superhero Static Shock. While one of the show’s executive producers has expressed interest in bringing the character onto the show, Isabella appears to be less on board with the idea.
“It was frustrating when people say, ‘I can’t wait to see Static in there.’” Isabella explained. “Static is a great character, but you put him in Black Lightning, he’s a sidekick, or you reduce Black Lightning to just a mentor role. I love both characters, I mean, I love Black Lighting more.”
With Black Lightning‘s first season still in its very early stages, fans will just have to wait and see which characters are brought onto the show.
More Black Lightning news:
- WATCH: DC’s Black Lightning TV Series Trailer
- Black Lighting Officially Not In The Arrowverse
- Black Lightning Gets a Series Order at The CW
- Black Lightning Character Breakdowns And Synopsis Released
Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) is a man wrestling with a secret. As the father of two daughters and principal of a charter high school that also serves as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero to his community. Nine years ago, Pierce was a hero of a different sort. Gifted with the superhuman power to harness and control electricity, he used those powers to keep his hometown streets safe as the masked vigilante Black Lightning. However, after too many nights with his life on the line, and seeing the effects of the damage and loss that his alter ego was inflicting on his family, he left his Super Hero days behind and settled into being a principal and a dad.
Choosing to help his city without using his superpowers, he watched his daughters Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain) grow into strong young women, even though his marriage to their mother, Lynn (Christine Adams), suffered. Almost a decade later, Pierce’s crime-fighting days are long behind him…or so he thought. But with crime and corruption spreading like wildfire, and those he cares about in the crosshairs of the menacing local gang The One Hundred, Black Lightning returns — to save not only his family, but also the soul of his community.
