The CW’s Black Lightning to power down with season 4

In a slightly shocking turn of events, The CW announced that Black Lightning will air its fourth and final season in 2021.

Black Lightning is officially shutting down in 2021, per Entertainment Weekly. Showrunner Salim Akil broke the news earlier today.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, as it feels like the Arrowverse is coming to an end of sorts. We already said goodbye to Arrow earlier this year (which feels like eons ago at this point), and then Supergirl announced it would be ending as well.

And now here we are with yet another Arrowverse show coming to an end. What’s next? The Flash? DC’s Legends of Tomorrow? As a huge fan of both of these shows, I sure hope not, but at this point it wouldn’t be shocking.

“When we first started the Black Lighting journey, I knew that Jefferson Pierce and his family of powerful Black Women would be a unique addition to the superhero genre,” said Akil. “The love that Blerds and all comic book fans around the globe have shown this series over the past three seasons proved what we imagined, Black People Want To See Themselves in all their complexities. Thank you to the phenomenal cast, writers, and crew without whom none of this would’ve been possible. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve been able to do and the moments we’ve been able to create in bringing DC’s first African-American family of superheroes to life for the culture.”

Black Lightning has definitely had an impact on the superhero genre. Revolving around a Black superhero family, there hadn’t been anything like it before, and the work of Akil and the rest of the cast and crew will not be forgotten. They did an amazing job and I look forward to seeing how they’ll wrap the story up in the fourth and final season, even if it’s hard to say goodbye.

And it’s not necessarily going away completely. EW recently reported that the fourth season would have a backdoor pilot for a potential Painkiller (Jordan Calloway) spinoff.

And there are other newer, up-and-coming Arrowverse shows to fill the gap when the older ones go. For example, Batwoman is just getting started. After Ruby Rose’s abrupt exit from the series, Javicia Leslie stepped into the role, and based on this teaser, she’s not going to let us down:

Black Lightning’s fourth and final season will premiere on February 8 which Batwoman’s second premieres on January 17!

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