‘Black Lightning’ Casting: Christine Adams Cast As Black Lightning’s Ex-Wife
As reported by Deadline, the upcoming Black Lightning series on The CW has cast Christine Adams as Lynn, the ex-wife of Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning – as played by Cress Williams. Jefferson Pierce is a retired superhero who now finds himself being drawn back into battling the forces of evil because of his daughter and local gang activity.
About ‘Black Lightning’
In the show, the character of Black Lightning is essentially a vigilante – a bit like Green Arrow on Arrow – and is apparently wanted by the police in the same way that Oliver Queen was in the first season of his series. Of course, if the series goes a few seasons, they may change this just like they did with Arrow.
While the pilot for the show has not yet been filmed, let alone picked up by The CW, given the tremendous success of producer Greg Berlanti’s “Arrowverse” on the network, it’s hard to imagine that this series won’t be a success as well.
About the Character
The character of Lynn is supposedly strong-willed, intelligent, and confident – as well as protective of her family. While there are no hints so far as to the reason for the divorce between Lynn and Jefferson, this protectiveness she feels for her family might have led to objections to her husband’s dangerous extracurricular activities.
Christine Adams herself has a long history in television and film, having appeared in Tron: Legacy and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In television, she was a regular on Feed the Beast on AMC and has appeared on Terra Nova and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD as Agent Anne Weaver.
How Black Lightning Will Fit
Although there have been suggestions that the Black Lightning series will not necessarily be set in the same universe as the other The CW superhero series, it’s very difficult to believe that Berlanti and crew would really want to isolate their only lead African-American superhero from the rest of the network’s DC Comics-based shows.
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In fact, there would almost certainly be a massive outcry against this kind of strategy with Black Lightning. It would quite literally seem like they were “segregating” the character of Black Lightning from his white counterparts. So, almost certainly, Black Lightning will ultimately be interacting with – at some point – the characters on Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow.
Keep in mind that the same thing was said about Supergirl when it first appeared on CBS – prior to moving to The CW. In fact, even when the show was on CBS, they were still able to work in a crossover episode between Supergirl and The Flash. So these decisions can change over time.
One last question about the character of Black Lightning will be the extent of his powers. In the comic books and in the various animated incarnations, this character was incredibly powerful – on a level with the Green Lantern. But just as the powers of Supergirl and Superman had to be toned down for the Supergirl series for plot and budgetary reasons, it may be that Black Lightning’s powers will have to be dialed back as well.
Even the Flash in his show doesn’t have nearly the level of power and speed that he does in the comic books – where he can actually run faster than light. And CGI budgetary limitations might also strip Black Lightning of his power to fly – quite literally grounding him. Still – even with such limitations – the DC comics shows on The CW have been generally well-received, so we can hope for the same from Black Lightning.
[Featured Image by Noam Galai/Getty Images for AMC]
