Black Lightning wrapped up its first season last night but that does not mean it answered all the questions raised in the first 13 episodes. One of these questions was whether the show exists in the Arrowverse, either on Earth 1 or on a different Earth in the multiverse.
This is, of course, a natural question to ask since the series airs on the same network as the four Arrowverse shows. But throughout the season there appeared to be slight nods to those shows, with references to Supergirl and Vixen the most pronounced. Additionally,
Arrow star
Stephen Amell has said he believes the two shows are in the same 'verse and will inevitably crossover in the future.
However, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly,
Black Lightning executive producer Salim Akil has seemingly laid to rest any suspicions about the show existing in the wider Arrowverse:
We are in our own world. We’re not in the Arrowverse. We’re not in the Supergirl universe. We’re in the Black Lightning universe. If there’s ever a crossover, Supergirl will come to Freeland, or Green Arrow will come to Freeland. We mentioned those other characters just to have fun. I thought it was just fun to tease the fans and have fun with the fans. We’re always trying to have a conversation with the fans and we’re also trying to have fun with them, so that was part of that.
So it would seem that any nods to Arrowverse characters were just fun references for the fans to pick up on, and only that. And while Akil indicates that Jefferson Pierce would not crossover onto
Arrow, he does not rule out Oliver Queen appearing on
Black Lightning. Cress Williams, who plays Pierce, further indicated the separation between
Black Lightning and the rest of the CW DC shows in an interview with
Innovation & Tech Today:
I think the producer/creator of the show, Salim [Akil], has been pretty clear that we're not really a part of the Arrowverse. I know everybody wants us to be, and I still see tweets going, 'another Arrowverse show.' But we're not part of it. I think he's even talked about it, it would be really great to create a new universe. I think he coined it the 'Lightningverse'. If we tried to fit ourselves into the Arrow-verse, we’d have to completely change the style of our show. If the Arrow-verse tries to fit into ours, it’s also changing the style of their show. They’re very different.
So there you have it! Could the two 'verses crossover at some point? Perhaps - the door is certainly open for that to happen and no one has ruled it out completely. But it seems like it will be the other DC heroes to make the jump.
Furthermore, Williams indicated that it is possible for other shows to spin-off in this Lightningverse and, if that were to happen, the shows would have a similar realism and tone as that of
Black Lightning. One character in particular that Williams has his sights on is the other famous DC electricity-based hero: "
I know a lot of people have been screaming about — not screaming — but chiming in that they would love to see Static Shock."
Martin Proctor did say there were several level 2 metahumans in the pods, perhaps one of these is Static Shock!? We will have to wait until season 2 to find out.
Be sure to share your thoughts on what Akil and Williams had to say, and let us know what you thought of the finale and season 1 as a whole!