The CW's Black Lightning Finds Its Leading Man

Black Lightning, the latest CW superhero saga from prolific producer Greg Berlanti, has found the perfect man for its titular tights: Cress Williams, who previously starred in the network's Hart of Dixie.

The pilot, hailing from Berlanti -- along with Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil of Being Mary Jane and The Game fame -- finds Williams playing Jefferson Pierce, a one-time athlete turned high school principal who gave up his secret crime-fighting ways a long time ago. But after a student of his starts being pursued by a gang, he returns to his calling as the superhero Black Lightning.

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Black Lightning makes for the second big superhero series with an African-American lead on TV -- coming just under a year after Netflix's Luke Cagenearly broke the Internet with demand on the day of its release -- and would join The CW's other DC Comics based superhero shows The Flash, Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrowand Supergirl, should it go to series.

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