Black Lightning Isn't Airing a New Episode Tonight

With Black Lightning in its final season on The CW the DC Comics-inspired series has been covering a lot of ground as it tells the story of what's next for the Pierce family in the year after the failed Markovian war and the end to the lockdown that the sketchy government organization, the A.S.A. put the city of Freeland in. The Pierce family is more broken than ever, Black Lightning (Cress Williams) has only recently returned to operating as a vigilante, and most recently the series hit fans with the massive twist of Jennifer getting a completely new look when the series recast the role departed by China Anne McClain with Laura Kariuki. But for fans hoping to sit down Monday night to see what's next, they're going to have to wait just a bit longer. There will be no new episode of Black Lightning this week.

Black Lightning remains on a brief hiatus this week. Instead of a new episode of Black Lightning, the network is re-broadcasting the extended pilot for Superman & Lois followed by a rebroadcast of the special Superman & Lois: Legacy of Hope. Black Lightning will return on Monday, April 12th with a brand new episode: the much-anticipated backdoor pilot for the potential Painkiller spinoff. The Painkiller spinoff was announced in late 2020 and Jordan Calloway, who plays Khalil Payne/Painkiller, recently told E! News how excited he is for the world the series will portray.

"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. "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."

You can check out the episode synopsis for "Painkiller", the seventh episode of Black Lightning's fourth and final season, below.

"PAINKILLER – Khalil Payne (Jordan Calloway) is a young man ridden with the guilt of his troubled past from his former life in Freeland City, where, as a super-enhanced killing machine known as Painkiller, he was both a member of Tobias Whale's gang and a weapon of Agent Odell and the shadowy ASA. After attempting to bury the darker, devastatingly lethal Painkiller part of his persona, Khalil has distanced himself away from everyone he knows and loves in a new city, Akashic Valley, in order to find peace…but peace never comes easy for men with pasts like Khalil Payne and Painkiller. As his violent, destructive history crashes his idyllic new beginning, Khalil is thrust back into action with a new mission - bring justice where he once gave out punishment – but to do that, he will first have to deal with and harness his darker side, Painkiller. The episode was written and directed by Salim Akil."

Black Lightning airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW. "Painkiller" will air on April 12th.