FOX have announced that they have made a pilot production commitment for DC superhero Black Lightning. It will be DC’s Greg Berlanti (producer of Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow) working alongside Mara Brock (The Game, Being Mary Jane)and Salim Akil who will be developing the series. This marks the third collaboration between DC Entertainment and FOX with both Gotham and Lucifer preceding it.
Black Lightning, created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden, made his first appearance in 1977’s Black Lightning #1. Beneath the mask of Black Lightning is Jefferson Pierce, a former Olympian, who was secretly born with the ability to create and manipulate electromagnetic fields. Although he had abandoned his hometown in Metropolis’ Suicide Slum after the murder of his father, Pierce returns there with his wife and daughter, taking a job as a high school principal. It is after losing one of his students to the gang violence that threatens the city that Pierce decides to take advantage of his powers by becoming a superhero.
