Cress Williams

He is the protector of his home, his school, and his city. He is Black Lightning! Cress Williams is the charismatic champion that is principle and father by day but masked vigilante with the power of lightning by night. Williams sits down and tells us about the joys of finding the role and talks about the tone in relation to the other CW super hero programs. It is a very interesting dynamic that sets the show apart and while we have seen the family structure before in other superhero shows it’s time to see how Daddy takes care of business. Father knows best in Black Lightning in and out of the household and Williams is here to tell us about being the charged up vigilante and Jefferson Pierce father to two daughters.

As both a father on and off screen Williams knows the functionality of a family and how it is his driving force for returning to the action of fighting crime, as was the case for his retirement. He notes that he is very protective of his daughters and as they have grown up he has lost any control he had over their lives and so he must dawn the suit of Black Lightning to keep them safe. Williams also talks about how excited he was for the part and that it felt almost rushed when he auditioned and only after a few days was confirmed as the man who would strike fear, and lightning, into criminals. Diving also into the tone of the show, especially in comparisson to the other CW superhero shows, we learn that it is a little darker because it is rooted in reality but that the family sitcom regularly comes in for the comic relief.

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 superhero 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. Based on the characters from DC, Black Lightning is from Berlanti Productions and Akil Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television with executive producers Greg Berlanti (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl), Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil (Being Mary Jane, The Game, Jumping the Broom, Girlfriends), and Sarah Schechter (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl). Black Lightning premieres midseason on The CW. | Black Lightning Special Video Presentation and Q&A