Black Lightning: Interview With Cress Williams On Season 1, Arrowverse, And Trump
Arrowverse And The Future
Black Lightning's on The CW, which is also home to the Arrowverse, but you're not a part of that yet I believe. What's the thinking behind that?
Yeah, at least not for now, because this is a new character to audiences. You know, people have been exposed to Flash at different points, they've been exposed to Supergirl or Superman at different points, and even Green Arrow to a certain degree, but this is a character very few people know about. It's his first time being exposed to the world, and there's a lot of development that has to be done in just showing him, and then there are his daughters who will develop their own powers and abilities, and we want to give that its proper due as well. We're saying never say never, but at this point we've got a lot of things to do and develop in our own right.
And just you personally, would you like to be one-day be part of those big four, or I guess five-way, crossovers, with all the big fun superhero action?
I'm more of a smaller world guy, so I'd love it if they actually came over to our show. All those other shows shoot in Vancouver, so that's logistically why they can't crossover so easily, and we shoot in Atlanta. The world we're in is so much more grounded, I think they would love the change of pace to have to fit into our world. I think that'd be a lot more exciting.
Yeah, that'd be really interesting to see. Going back to your own show, you mentioned Jefferson's daughters getting powers, so is that a long-term plan for the show?
Yeah. Where it goes I'm not quite sure, but I do know that it's a long-term goal of the show for their powers to manifest and develop. What they decide to do with them is still up in the air and being developed. I will say that the daughters as people are very different, and obviously if anyone is a fan of the comics they'll know their powers are also very different. So they will view their powers differently, and what to do with them differently, and just have different journeys, but I think telling that story, and how it affects the family and the neighbourhood, is a big part of our goal.
How will Jefferson, as someone who has been a superhero and then got out of it, feel about his daughters getting powers?
I think it's a combination of pride, because it comes from him, but then there's fear too. Because you can tell in episode one that being a superhero has cost him a lot. It's cost him his family being together and it's cost him the love of his life. He's also seen that it never ends, you're never done fighting, so it's a mixed bag of emotions. But as the show develops he grows and his ex-wife grows, so the Jefferson and the Lynn you meet episode one, they're not the Jefferson and Lynn you meet once the daughters start developing their powers. They've gone through some things so that it's just slightly different.
So just to wrap up, what can fans be really excited about seeing in Season 1? Any hints you can drop as to what we might expect, or any really big moments that you're excited about everyone watching?
Yeah, well there's quite a bit. Throughout the whole season you're going to learn some really cool backstory on Gambi, on Tobias, on myself, and getting an understanding of how and why we're all connected. But I'm excited, I guess because it's coming up soon, about episode two. When you were talking about The Wire, there's a moment in episode two where I was reading the script and I gasped, and I had to stop for a second. Like woah, that really happened. It really deepened and illuminated the kind of show this is, and I can't wait to see people's reaction to it.
Awesome. Thanks very much, Cress!
Thanks!
Black Lightning Episode 1 launches on Netflix on 23rd January. Further episodes follow weekly.