Black Lightning won’t premiere until October, but Shadow And Act had the pleasure of catching up with one of our favorite superhero families and a couple of villains at San Diego Comic-Con. Cress Williams (Jefferson Pierce/ Black Lightning), Christine Adams (Lynn Stewart), Nafessa Williams (Anissa Pierce/Thunder), China Anne McClain (Jennifer Pierce/Lightning), Marvin “Krondon” Jones III (Tobias Whale) , and Jordan Calloway (Khalil Payne/Painkiller) were all on hand to let us in on some secrets about what’s ahead for the citizens of Freeland, as the apocalyptic war of all wars is basically here and nothing will ever be the same!
At the center of this apocalyptic Freeland is still the Pierce family, who saw more ups and downs last season than ever before, particularly Jennifer (McClain) with the death of her boyfriend Khalil (Calloway), and the normal growing pains we see with a teenager on top of managing her highly unpredictable, emotionally stimulating powers.
On what McClain says we can expect from Jennifer Pierce this season:
“When the season starts, we see that Jennifer is getting more powerful, stronger and she’s also getting more emotional. We can expect a combination of all three of those this season. With her emotions, it is a lot harder for her to contain her powers and control her actions,” McClain said.
As the season expands, here’s what she hopes to see in terms of her character’s growth:
“I want to see her just go ahead and step into her powers fully. Over the past couple of seasons, she’s been super apprehensive, saying she didn’t want her powers and to take them away from her. I want her to embrace them,” she added.
Right by Jennifer’s side is her big sister, Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams) who is still struggling emotionally, after a different type of devastating loss.
Williams on her character’s current emotional state:
“Well for starters, she’s been ghosted by Grace. So, she has a lot of questions and is confused about quite a lot at the start of the season. She trusted Grace and invited her to her house to meet her family, which speaks volumes about how she feels, but maybe Grace got cold feet. In terms of her personal life, we have yet to see that completely unfold. I hope that this particular relationship resurfaces and Grace comes back around,” Williams revealed.
Will Anissa even have time to focus on love in the middle of an apocalypse? According to Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) aka Black Lightning bka, her father, likely not, because they have a larger threat ahead of them.
On what’s to come for the Pierce family:
“Season three begins about a month and a half after season two. Our entire family is a little disjointed and Jefferson’s immediate focus is trying to keep both of his daughters out of the war that’s coming. At some point, they’ll have to come together to fight this,” Williams told us. And rest assured, Jefferson is never alone when it comes to protecting his family, his on-again, off-again, ex-wife, Lynn Stewart (Adams) showed us last season that she is willing to do any and everything for the Pierce Family.
On Lynn’s fearlessness:
“She’s already said that she’ll do whatever it takes to take care of her family. She’ll do whatever it takes to save the Green Light Babies. She’s done it with her mind, in the lab, and with a shotgun. She killed a guy in season one. In season two, she beat Dr. Jace. Now that the family is preparing for war, it’s going to look pretty crazy,” Adams said.
Future Arrowverse crossovers?
While there have been no talks of collaboration yet with the other shows in the DC TV Universe, if the show were to call for backup in this war or just do a crossover in general, what actors does Calloway hope to work with? “I was a huge fan of the whole Arrowverse when it first came out. So, I would probably have to say, either Stephen Amell or David Ramsey. I am also a fan of The Flash as well. So, you know, let’s just do a crossover. How about that?” Calloway spilled.
The most shocking thing Tobias Whale has done:
As we prepare for season 3, there are sure to be lots of surprises ahead, especially with the curveballs the writing team has thrown thus far. So, what is one of the most shocking things to date that Tobias Whale has had to do? Jones told us: “Killing my dad. I kept asking and thinking, where are we going with this? We have such great writers, with such a great vision for this character and this is something I never saw coming,” he said.
Well, here’s to even more surprises, drama, love, mystery, and butt-kicking, when Black Lightning returns on October 21st, only on the CW!
READ MORE:
The Women Of ‘Black Lightning’ On Being Badass, Embracing Their Powers In The ‘High Stakes’ Season 2
Photo: Getty Images
