‘Black Lightning’: Why China Anne McClain Was Planning to Leave the Show Even If It Wasn’t Ending
Television series Black Lightning will be ending its series run on The CW with the upcoming fourth season of the show and fans are still inconsolable. One of the series’ stars, China Anne McClain, revealed that even if the show would not be ending after the new season, she would still be leaving.
‘Black Lightning’ will end after its fourth season while a spinoff is also being planned
Recently, it was announced that Black Lightning‘s fourth season would be its last. It would be able to have a concrete conclusion to its story arcs.
“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 executive producer Salim Akil in a press statement at the time. “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.
Though the show is ending, there is a spinoff series starring Jordan Calloway, Painkiller, in development.
‘Black Lightning’ star China Anne McClain had planned to leave the show anyway
Shortly after it was announced that Black Lightning would end, McClain took to Instagram live where she explained she had decided to not return to the show even if it was coming back.
“There’s been a lot to happen over this quarantine, and I’m not talking about the PC side of it,” she said in the video. “These people that are dying and the way of the world now. It’s real. And all this is an illusion. This industry for what it is and everything that people look to and praise, it’s not important.” The actress said that she would be “doing God’s work now, and I’m not doing anything else.”
McClain also stressed that her reason for leaving has nothing to do with her time on the show or any dealings with the network (The CW) or studio (Warner Bros. Television).
“I’m not leaving because I had a terrible time working at the CW,” she continued. “I like the CW. I like [CW president] Mark Pedowitz, I like [Warner Bros. president] Peter Roth, [executive producer] Greg Berlanti, I love [Black Lightning showrunner] Salim [Akil], I always will. He gets it. And people that actually know me… they know why I make the decisions that I make.”
The actress also congratulated co-star Calloway on the upcoming Painkiller spinoff. “Congratulations to Salim and Jordan, who just got a spinoff. Please support him in that. God did that for him and he’s going to do great, I know it,” she said.
The fourth and final season on Black Lightning is set to air in February on The CW.
