Tag: Salim Akil

Chantal Thuy Upped To Series Regular On BLACK LIGHTNING

by jaywashington, posted in Entertainment, TV

Fans have come to love the Thunder-Grace relationship with Thunder/Anissa Pierce played by Nafessa Williams and Grace Choi played by Chantal Thuy. Well, we will for sure be getting more of that relationship in volume in the upcoming fourth season as Chantal Thuy has been upped to a series regular on BLACK LIGHTNING that will premiere in February.

Chantal Thuy embodies the character of Grace Choi,” says BLACK LIGHTNING executive producer and showrunner Salim Akil. “I am sure our BLACK LIGHTNING fans knew, especially those who follow the Grace and Anissa relationship storyline, that having Chantal join as a series regular was only a matter of time. I am elated to finally welcome her officially to the team.”

Thuy’s character of Grace Choi is based on the BLACK LIGHTNING comic created by Tony Isabella with Trevor von Eeden, Grace Choi has been in a committed onscreen romantic relationship with Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams) since the first season. The fan-favorite couple has consequently been through the highs and lows that any superheroes trying to maintain a personal life go through.

Thuy recently made her Broadway debut last year in Tracy Letts’ play Linda Vista with the Second Stage Theater in New York. Alongside the Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble, she reprised the role of Minnie Tran after playing the part in the Center Theatre Group’s production in Los Angeles. She also ha previously guest starred in television series such as Madam Secretary (CBS), Pretty Little Liars (Freeform) and Matador (El Rey Network). She is represented by Joseph Le Talent Agency and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

In the third season amidst all of the chaos we saw Anissa & Grace attempt at getting married which was put on hold. Hopefully we will see the nuptials given and more Grace Choi in action.

PAINKILLER To Get His Own Spinoff Series On The CW

by jaywashington, posted in Entertainment, TV

After a major turn around in his arc in Season 2 of BLACK LIGHTNING and helping the Outsiders to stop Agent O’Dell (Bill Duke), GraveDigger (Wayne Brady) and the ASA’s occupation of Freeland, PAINKILLER played by Jordan Calloway will be getting his own spinoff series as announced by the CW on today.

The pilot will air as the seventh episode in the upcoming fourth season of BLACK LIGHTNING. BLACK LIGHTNING creator Salim Akil will serve as the shows EP, Writer and Director.

The synopsis of the series is:

Khalil Payne (Jordan Calloway) is a young man ridden with the guilt of his troubled past from his former life in Freeland City, where, as a super-enhanced killing machine known as Painkiller, he was both a member of Tobias Whale’s gang and a weapon of Agent Odell and the shadowy ASA. After attempting to bury the darker, devastatingly lethal Painkiller part of his persona, Khalil has distanced himself away from everyone he knows and loves in a new city, Akashic Valley, in order to find peace…but peace never comes easy for men with pasts like Khalil Payne and Painkiller.   As his violent, destructive history crashes his idyllic new beginning, Khalil is thrusted back into action with a new mission – bring justice where he once gave out punishment – but to do that, he will first have to deal with and harness his darker side, Painkiller.

This is very exciting news not just to see the world of BLACK LIGHTNING expanding but also for Jordan Calloway who has worked extremely hard in developing the character and getting him to connect to the audience.

You can check out the third season of BLACK LIGHTNING currently streaming on Netflix

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First Look Trailer for Black Lightning

by jaywashington, posted in Entertainment

black-lightning-first-look-image

Well things are picking up steam for Black Lightning. After being announced that the CW has picked up its newest Superhero show by Greg Berlanti and Mara Brock-Alim and husband Salim Akil for a full season order, we now have a first look trailer.

The trailer which shows Black Lightning aka Jefferson Pierce (played by Cress Williams) retiring from the crime fighting lifestyle after being shot one too many times and making a promise to his wife to lead a normal life for the sake of his family.

Now with Pierce a high school principal and his daughters coming of age in the same school, we see his city being overrun once again by the street gang known as “The 100”. Throughout the trailer we see the creation of the updated and modified Black Lightning costume as well as Pierce’s two.daughters develop abilities of their own.  This is an action packed trailer and has raised the anticipation for this new series.

Take a look

CW’s Black Lightning gets Series Order

by jaywashington, posted in Entertainment

 

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What went from just a pilot is now officially a full part of the Arrowverse.

via comicbookmovie.com

The CW’s Black Lightning has been ordered to series, marking the fifth DC superhero show on the network and the sixth DC adaptation overall, including iZombie, which was just renewed for a fourth season.

Greg Berlanti’s latest DC Comics-based offering Black Lightning is reported to be picked up from a pilot order, making its mid-season debut at the beginning of next year. The network also carries Arrow, the Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl, as well as the Archie Comics adaptation Riverdale.

Reports started to come out earlier this week that Black Lightning was all-but-assured a midseason debut and a 13-episode pickup. Those particulars haven’t yet been confirmed, but seem likely.

The CW airs each of those shows and has since made a name for itself as a popular network for younger demographics.

The show as initially put into the works for Fox, who passed on the project before the CW picked it up — the same process undergone by Riverdale.

Berlanti oversees all of the DC superhero shows as well as Riverdale, and his pilot Searchers may be picked up by The CW this year as well. He isn’t involved in iZombie, which was developed by Veronica Mars executives Rob Thomas, Diane Ruggiero-Wright, and Dan Etheridge.

“I knew way too much about the world as a young boy growing up in Richmond, California. I was no stranger to violence, death, hopelessness or the feeling that no one cared about what was happening in my life,” said executive producer and writer Salim Akil, who will direct the pilot. “Comics were a great way for me to escape. I was about 13 when Black Lightning was created, and finally there was a Black Super Hero that gave a damn about our neighborhood and our lives. Resurrecting him at a time in our society when a sense of hope is lacking…Black Lightning will be that hope. And in updating the suit, it will signal to a new generation that it’s time to harness and release our power, and become our own Super Heroes.”

The first African-American DC Super Hero to have his own stand-alone comic title, Black Lightning is based on the character created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden in 1977. Jefferson Pierce made his choice: he hung up the suit and his secret identity years ago, but with one daughter hell-bent on justice and the other 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.

Greg Berlanti, Salim Akil, Mara Brock Akil and Sarah Schechter are executive producers of Black Lightning, from Berlanti Productions and Akil Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Salim Akil is directing the pilot from a script he wrote.

Jefferson Pierce made his choice: he hung up the suit and his secret identity years ago, but with a daughter hell-bent 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.

‘Black Lightning’ has added its final lead to upcoming series

by jaywashington, posted in Entertainment

Allow me to say that the anticipation for this show is steadily climbing higher and higher. Joining Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce and Nafessa Williams and China Anne McLain as his daughters, Anissa and Jennifer, on The CW’s Black Lightning will be Christine Adams as the former superhero’s ex-wife, Lynn Stewart

Adams will probably be best known for playing Agent Weaver during the first two seasons of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but she’s also appeared in the likes of Batman Begins, Tron: Legacy, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Deadline describes this small-screen take on Lynn Stewart as a woman “who exudes confidence and intelligence. Although she’s got a mischievous side, she’s not one to be trifled with when it comes to family”.

Black Lightning will be written and produced by Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil, alongside Greg Berlanti. There’s no set premiere date just yet.

DC superhero “Black Lightning” TV show in the works

by jaywashington, posted in Entertainment

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It seems as if the king of the DC televsion universe, Greg Berlanti is back at once again. This time he is linking up with creator of The Game and Being Mary Jane, Mara Brock Akil and her husband Salim Akil to bring another DC Comics character to life and to the television screen in Black Lightning.

The story is written by the Akils where Black Lightning centers on Jefferson Pierce who made the choice to hang up his superhero suit and secret identity many years ago. But that changes when his daughter becomes hell-bent on justice and a star student gets actively recruited by a local gang, Pierce plunges back into the fold as the wanted vigilante and legend Black Lightning.

The project is currently being shopped around to various networks. How potentially amazing would it be to see a Berlanti DC television property become a NETFLIX exclusive?