Yet another Greg Berlanti series is about to make its way from a foster network to its forever home at The CW, with Deadline reporting that Black Lightning is likely to jump ship from Fox to Berlanti’s personal TV empire. Developed by Salim and Mara Brock Akil, the show is based on DC Comics hero Jefferson Pierce, who gets back into the vigilante game after years of retirement. Fox ultimately passed on the show, citing a schedule that’s already packed with genre fare; it took Warner Bros. roughly a second to start talking about acquiring the series for itself.
If it pulls the trigger on the deal, it’ll be the third time the CW has swooped in to grab a Berlanti show discarded by another network. Earlier this year, something similar happened with Riverdale, which is now drawing strong reviews for the Warner Bros. network. And last year, Supergirl made the move from CBS after its first season, consolidating all of Berlanti’s DC TV universe in one spot.
If and when it makes it to TV, Black Lightning will be the first broadcast show to feature a black superhero as its lead. (Though it’ll be trailing Luke Cage, which streams on Netflix, by several months at least.) If picked up, it would be Berlanti’s fifth superhero show on the network, and sixth overall.
