Woah! Check out a first-look photo of Nafessa Williams as the superheroine, Anissa Pierce/Thunder on The CW’s upcoming DC Comics television series, Black Lightning.
Last month, Williams told Shadow and Act on-set of the show that her character would be suiting up, speaking with excitement about it, without revealing many details about the suit itself.
The character’s sister, Jennifer (China Anne McClain) has been revealed to have powers in the promos for the show as well. It is unknown if she will suit up as the third family superhero, Lightning.
The show will premiere on January 16 on The CW.
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 neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero in 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.
In the DC comics, Thunder, can increase her physique rendering her almost indestructible and create shockwaves by stomping the ground. Her sister, Lightning has nearly identical powers to her father. In comic canon, after promising her parents to finish school before she started crime-fighting, she soon after followed in her father’s footsteps after graduating and becoming a vigilante. She was approached by Red Arrow to join the Batman-organized crime-fighting team, The Outsiders.
Based on the characters from D.C., Black Lightning is from Berlanti Productions and Akil Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti, Salim Akil & Mara Brock Akil and Sarah Schechter. The Black Lightning character was created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden.
Be on the lookout for Shadow and Act’s exclusive coverage behind the scenes of the show and interviews with its cast members.
