Black Lightning to End With Season 4; Painkiller Spinoff Still in Development
The upcoming fourth season of The CW’s Black Lightning will be its last, the network announced Friday.
“When we first started the Black Lightning journey, I knew that Jefferson Pierce and his family of powerful Black Women would be a unique addition to the super hero genre,” executive producer Salim Akil said in a statement. “The love that Blerds and all comic book fans around the globe have shown this series over the past three seasons proved what we imagined, Black People Want To See Themselves in all their complexities.”
He continued, “Thank you to the phenomenal cast, writers and crew without whom none of this would’ve been possible. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve been able to do and the moments we’ve been able to create in bringing DC’s first African-American family of super heroes to life for the culture.”
“I’m very grateful to Peter Roth, Warner Bros. TV, Mark Pedowitz, The CW Network and Greg Berlanti for their partnership and support of my vision at every step of this journey,” he concluded. “While Season Four may be the end of one journey, I’m extremely excited to usher in a new chapter and continued collaboration with The CW as we tell the story of Painkiller.”
The fourth and final season of Black Lightning premieres Monday, Feb. 8 at 9/8c on The CW, while a spinoff centered around Painkiller (played by Jordan Calloway) is currently in development.
Black Lightning stars Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, China Anne McClain as Jennifer Pierce, Nafessa Williams as Anissa Pierce, Christine Adams as Lynn Stewart, Marvin “Krondon” Jones III as Tobias Whale, James Remar as Peter Gambi, Chantal Thuy as Grace Choi (newly promoted to series regular!) and Calloway as Khalil Payne.
Once Black Lightning and Supergirl end their upcoming final seasons, The CW’s stable of Arrowverse shows will consist of Batwoman, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Stargirl and Superman & Lois. The network is also developing a Wonder Girl series, focused on Latina superhero Yara Flor.
TVLine’s Broadcast Renewal Scorecard has been updated with the news of Black Lightning‘s end. Are you ready to say goodbye to the Pierces? Drop a comment with your thoughts on the show’s early conclusion below.
Figures. I hope the girls will be on Legends
That would be awesome!
The girls are the best part of the show. BL himself gets lost a bit to the girls’ plots. I think this may be why the show is ending. They don’t know what to do, or what kind of show they want to be. The cast may be frustrated, each of them thinking they should be on a different show that they find themselves on, and wanting to move on.
I guess that explains the spin-off that they are pursuing. I’m a bit surprised, but, maybe, Cress Williams wanted to do other things.
It doesn’t film on Vancouver like the others, Stargirl excepted. I understood it never got a full season because it was more costly to film in GA. I wonder if Painkiller will potentially film in Vancouver?
Was going to say that. You beat me to it
Best superhero show on TV. Sucks that this is getting cancelled, yet Legends of Tomorrow gets worse every season, with the shrinking budget (Ray and Nate hardly ever suited up, and Wally never in costume) and writing off great characters for no reason. I would much rather see it go than the strong, positive black role model Cress Williams is.
Y is legend of tomorrow still and coming on? Its sucks now
its quite obvious why legends of tomorrow is still running. Look at the cast. Then look at Black Lightnings Cast. Its as plain as black and white.
I agree Chris Kinney. I will miss Black Lighting and it was a pleasure to be a fan. Much love to the cast and crew. Thanks for 4 seasons and success to your future endeavors.
First Supergirl now this show.
Supergirl SUCKED. Nothing but liberal crap.
Spin it off with Jen. Or Anissa.
So the CW essentially sets up a Justice league with the ending of Crisis, an now another member who would be sitting around that table, their show is ending. What is that, 3 now? I guess 4 with one of the 2 members being on the same show.
Maybe this will lead to a Justice League miniseries every year. Clears them up for like a 4 or 5 episode event series each season
I would prefer a 2 smaller crossover every season with maybe 2 characters involved like we had qwith Flash/Arrow at the beginning and then a big 5 episodes crossover Justice League during any hiatus. But with covid show are already delayed, I don’t see major crossovers in a near future…
I thought black lighting was going to be around for at least 4-7 seasons
Me too!
Aren’t they making a movie with The Rock playing the part?
I am sorry to see the show end so soon. It was great seeing the black family dynamic in A superhero show. I love these characters and I hope to see them at least make appearances in other shows and not just disappear completely.
Not fair! He just joined the arrowverse
I am a bit shocked. Perhaps Jennifer can be worked into the Painkiller spinoff as a recurring character.
But, I would be more interested in a Thunder/Blackbird [and Grace] spinoff… or maybe she can travel to the future and be teamed with the Canaries for a new Birds of Prey.
I don’t want to see. Black lighting leave I liked watching this show plus I will miss all the characters this show was exciting and it has u curious for more action and more Episodes for me I enjoy every minute of watching
I don’t understand this if your going to do a spin-off I rather have Anissa Jennifer and Grace spin-off then Painkiller
I like Khalid but I don’t know if I’m going to want to watch his journey on his own show
In the comics, Grace and Anissa join the Outsiders team put together by Roy Harper. That could be a fun show.
Indigo (Brainiac 8) was part of that team, so maybe pull Brainiac 5 to the team
Disappointing news since so many Arrowverse shows have ended or are ending. I hope this can pave the way for Stargirl to possibly move to the fall with a few more episodes.
Would actually like to see it paired with Legends since those and Black Lightning are the best superhero/comic book shows on the network.
So the TV JL will be down Black Lightening, Supergirl and Martian Manhunter. The new Batwoman will have earn her spot at the table. Is anyone else even more worried about Legends?! Imagine if we lost Sara too. Flash isn’t going to last forever either.
I can’t understand how Legends is still around… it was the lowest rated of the shows and they kept cutting the budget so it barely even has super heroes anymore.. I’d much rather lose that one than some of these.
It depends on the reasons for it ending. Allegedly Supergirl is ending, at least in part, because it’s expensive to make and the ratings are dropping.
Legends was very top heavy with it’s cast in it’s early years, and also quite VFX heavy, but has become less and less so as it’s gone on.
There are various possibilities for BL ending, it could be the cost of production in Georgia vs Vancouver, it could be that the lead actor wants to do something else, or it could be that 4 seasons was always the narrative plan for the characters.
Legends had a smaller budget, but they have learned to make the most of it and found their stride and their own style after the first season fumbles. Supergirl started well, but went downhill fast. And it was the writing that destroyed it, not the budget.
One leads to the other. A show can justify a large budget if it’s still pulling in the ratings. If the ratings drop (and especially with the usual clauses about salaries going up after 6 seasons that seem so common) then the budget becomes an issue, regardless of the reason for the ratings drop
You notice they never explain why they are cancelling this Can somebody tell me why they are cancelling this? I love this show.
I just mentioned the other day how I fear for the arrowverse future, and now this. First we have Green arrow and the canaries on the bubble for how many months now? Then supergirl is canceled. Batwoman is going to be a serious bubble show with such a major shakeup, and now Black Lighting is gone. The flash and legends are both getting on in years and are unlikely to stick around beyond the next 3-4 seasons (if that.) What we will be left with is a Superman show, a painkiller show, star girl (who is likely to get her own universe instead of joining the arrowverse,) and whatever they decide to add. Things are not looking great in the arrowverse.
Remember how some people said the same thing when they announced Arrow was ending….
Yay black lightning is ending because I never cared I liked the show Black lightning and I hope they’ll come up with another spin off and I hope they’ll be a much better show than the show black lightning..
Why is this being cut short? Is the CW losing confidence in it’s “Arrowverse?”
Could TheCW be changing and going to Drama’s? Then they would have DC shows on HBO/Max?
im suprised by this more than the supergirl end, i dont read bl comics so idk what more they can get from his comics
although i think he could make a platform to introduce static shock to the AV
really i dont get the catalyst behind this decision and keeping flash and legends on the air, ratings aside, those shows are just starting to live on borrowed time
TheFlash is the highest rated Arrowverse show. I don’t get why they keep Legends on? Aren’t they they lowest rated Arrowverse show? I used to like it but not anymore with the cast changes. Be interesting to see the new Batwoman and Superman and Lois ratings.
no offense but i said put ratings aside, i dont care if its a high rated show, the flash is really struggling lately to bring in new stories and new interesting characters, they are already bringing in speedster villians after they said savitar was the last one, its fine, im not being harsh at the writers but it proves my point
if flash is the highest rated still, id love to know what people tune into each week that they love so much and i liked flash lately too but again it was mostly cause of the villians
im glad in a way cause i cant take whale as the villian any longer, yet another lex/thawne type, he’s just kept alive so they can kill him at the end i guess cause right now i have no faith they will redeem him
Personally I would prefer an Outsiders spinoff rather than a Painkiller one. I mean they basically already assembled the entire team. (They even made a joke about it last season!) Of course I’ve always preferred team books to solo titles, so that could be why I have less interest in seeing another solo hero show.
Oh no! I love this show.
This time next year, the Flash and Superman&Lois will be all the cw has left
There’s still StarGirl and Legends both of them will surely get renewals next year after their upcoming seasons are done airing.
Let’s make him part of the Arrowverse and then end his show..cool cool cool cool cool.
I like Khalil but his character is not interesting enough to keep my interest on a spin-off. Might as well just give the Arrow spin-off a season. Now if Anissa and Jenn were to be the spin-off focus I’d be all for it
Please don’t end the series. It’s one of my favorite shows!!!
Wow – first you take off SuperGirl a show that many people loved. Although, I knew it would be soon that SuperGirl would be taken off because you started seeing new supporting staff with powers that really compared with SuperGirl making the character of SuperGirl less unique in her own show. Dreamer (who every week it seemed obtained a new power) would have been better in Legends instead of trying to outshine SuperGirl in her own show and Brainy needed less screen time. Now Black Lightning is being taken off. I for one will not be looking at Superman and Lois because Supergirl did not become not needed once the man of steel showed up. I am sick of the Flash. I don’t look at Legends and Batgirl does not look like its going to be all that good and StarGirl is for kids and teenagers – so keep getting rid of the good shows CW and pretty soon you will no viewers at all.