SDCC 2019: Black Lightning’s Cress Williams says family disjointed when s3 begins, actors explain their upcoming arcs [EXCLUSIVE]
The cast and crew of 'Black Lightning' were present at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2019 for a panel about the upcoming season of the show set to premiere in October on The CW and what fans can expect. It was here that actors Cress Williams, Nafessa Williams, China Anne McClain and Christine Adams teased the what's coming up next. Speaking to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) about how their family will evolve in season 3, the actors said they will be disjointed at the beginning of the show.
Cress, who plays the titular role in the show aka Jefferson Pierce spoke about how his character's journey will draw up in comparison to his daughter Jennifer Pierce and said, "Season 3 begins a month and a half after the events of the finale of season 2 occurred. At the beginning of it, we are, as a family, a little disjointed and Jefferson's main focus at that point is to figure out how to keep his daughters out of the war, the war that is coming. But I think that at some point, we will all have to come together."
China Anne McClain plays the role of Jennifer in the show, aka Lightning and at the beginning of the upcoming season, she gets more powerful and stronger and this is combined with her also becoming more emotional. It was also revealed at the Comic-Con, that it will get harder for Jennifer to contain her powers and just one week into shooting for the upcoming season, McClain doesn't know much about how her character will shape up this season.
However, speaking about finding it difficult to contain her power, McClain said she will not just be a danger to herself but also to others around her as she struggles with her power. "We are already seeing something bad in like just the first couple of episodes. Her just doing too much... Her emotions getting the best of her and her making bad decisions."
Actor Nafessa Williams, who plays the role of Anissa Pierce, is also the meta-human Thunder, who is passionate and a medical student who teaches students part-time. Anissa goes through a transformation in season 3 and she grows up to be a woman who trusts herself and steps out of her father's shadow, while she continues to appreciate his guidance.
She spoke about her relationship with her father (Jefferson Pierce) and what can be expected in season 3 of the show and also about what part of her character and its development she found most interesting. Nafessa said we will continue to see more of her character's maturity and growth in season 3.
She said, "Season 1 was about her understanding and discovering her powers, in season 2 she is kind of starting to perfect them and trust herself. Season 3, she is a woman. She trusts that and she is from under the leadership of her father and she is always willing to take advice but sometimes her ideas and her ways of doing things and her mindset is different from her father's."
Jefferson's ex-wife Lynn Stewart who is a neuroscientist is also big on family and has said multiple times she would do whatever it takes to protect his family. She divorced Jefferson because she thought that him being a vigilante was a danger to her family and they separated amicably.
After the action Lynn got in season 2, it is only expected to get more intense for her in the upcoming season. Speaking about this journey, Christine Adams said, "To be honest, when the show started, I didn't realize the direction that Lynn was going to go. I genuinely thought she is the mum and she is going to be the mum in the show. She is going to be this civic, voice of calm and God, how wrong I was. Actually, what they have done with her is trying to give her this equal standing. Also, they made her the glue, to a point - the voice of reason. All that stuff's going out of the window now because now she just wants to figure out what is going on with these Green (Light) Babies. She is much more multi-dimensional than I imagined."
Black Lightning season 3 will air on October 21 on The CW at 9 pm ET.
