While there’s much buzz surrounding the upcoming series premiere of Black Lightning – and deservedly so – one burning question on everybody’s mind is whether or not it takes place in the Arrowverse. While it’s not necessarily a must, any superhero show based on a DC property airing on The CW is naturally expected to do just that and, likewise, participate in crossovers.
Perhaps to the chagrin of some, the electrifying new series (pun intended) will be a standalone of sorts, at least for the first season. Don’t forget that before it landed at The CW, Black Lightning was being shopped around to other networks and was originally assumed to end up at Fox. So, obviously, it wasn’t written with outside superheroes in mind.
Still, hope springs eternal, as Legends of Tomorrow‘s own Brandon Routh hopes to head into battle with Jefferson Pierce in next season’s big Arrowverse crossover (via ComicBook.com):
“The more the merrier — and then it’s less work for everybody else. Or maybe it’s still more work. I don’t know if there’s any more room on the Waverider for anybody else. We barely fit everybody on the steps.”
Funny he should say that, because Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim has had similar thoughts spring to mind, but he’s admitted that such a thing is above his pay grade.
On the flip side, Cress Williams, Black Lightning himself, isn’t so sure if crossing over his character with those in the Arrowverse makes sense from a logistical or storytelling point of view:
“It would be hard. The thing is, I don’t know, I don’t see the world where I would want to leave my community to help them, basically, we got our hands full. And I don’t know if they would, they have very macro ‘We gotta save the world’ issues coming to us. And then there’s also the logistical ‘We should go to Atlanta, and we should go to Vancouver.'”
Black Lightning premieres tonight on The CW. For more, be sure to check out our review.
