UPDATED: Mon, Jul 10, 05:20PM
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.