Having found Jefferson Pierce last week with the casting of Cress Williams (Hart of Dixie), The CW’s latest DC pilot Black Lightning has now added two more additions in Nafessa Williams (Code Black) and China Anne McClain (House of Payne).
Deadline is reporting that McCain will play Jefferson’s younger daughter, the teenage Jennifer Pierce, an independent, outspoken scholar-athlete with a wild streak of her own, while Williams will potray Anissa Pierce — passionate and quick-witted, Jefferson’s twenty-something daughter balances the demands of medical school with her job teaching part-time at her father’s school. In the comic books, the two characters will eventually become superheroes themselves, under the names Thunder and Lightning.
Black Lightning has been written by Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil (The Game), with Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl) producing. It will follow Jefferson Pierce, a man who hung up the suit and his secret identity years ago, but with a daughter hellbent on justice and a star student being recruited by a local gang, he’ll be pulled back into the fight as the wanted vigilante and DC legend Black Lightning.
Originally published March 3, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
