The CW’s latest DC superhero TV show, Black Lightning isn’t even out yet, but its producers are already airing their hopes that more characters from the DC pantheon will find their way onto the series in the future.
Speaking at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, co-showrunner Salim Akil talked about his love for the character Static Shock and how much he would like to have him on the show.
“I love the idea of Static Shock, and in success, hopefully, we’ll be able to pull other characters in in that way. So I’m holding out hope because I love that character.”
Originally created for Milestone Comics, Static Shock – also known as plain old Static – was later incorporated into the mainline DC universe. The character’s alter ego is Virgil Hawkins, a regular teenager who gains electromagnetic powers in a metahuman-creating event called “The Big Bang.”
Non-comic book readers will probably know him from his own self-titled animated series that ran from 2000 to 2004 as part of the popular DC Animated Universe, which also comprised the likes of Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited. A couple of years ago, there were rumblings that DC was working on a movie version starring Jaden Smith, but that seems to have come to nothing.
Given that, it would make a lot of sense for Static Shock to make his way onto Black Lightning instead. With three lightning-themed heroes already on the show – the eponymous hero and his two daughters, Thunder and Lightning – Virgil Hawkins would fit in perfectly. However, DC’s TV division has notoriously had issues clearing the rights for various characters in the past, so we wouldn’t get our hopes up just yet.
Black Lightning is set to air in a mid-season slot in 2018. As always, watch this space for more.
