Cress Williams is ready for his close-up as the new live-action DC Comics hero Black Lightning. A really tiny close-up.
Months ahead of his onscreen debut, the star of The CW’s upcoming superhero drama Black Lightning is already getting immortalized as a collectible statue, and Nerdist has your exclusive first look at the 12-inch figure from DC Collectibles. Modeled off of Williams’ titular hero Jefferson Pierce from Greg Berlanti’s next big DC TV series, the statue is dressed in the full Black Lightning supersuit, mask and all. It’s so badass that he’s even got blue lightning bolts coming right out of his hand. Talk about being battle-ready!
“Wow that is amazing!” Williams tells Nerdist. “I’m excited and extremely honored to have a statue in my likeness. It’s very surreal and a bit overwhelming at the same time.”
If you’re a merch-loving comic book fan, then you already know that Jefferson Pierce is just the latest character to join DC Collectibles’ bestselling line of 12-inch DCTV statues. If you want the whole set, you can also collect Arrow‘s Green Arrow modeled after Stephen Amell, The Flash‘s Reverse Flash modeled after Tom Cavanagh (not Matt Letscher—don’t get that confused) and The Flash modeled after Grant Gustin, Supergirl‘s Supergirl modeled after Melissa Benoist and Gotham‘s Jim Gordon modeled after Ben McKenzie.
First created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden for DC Comics in 1977, The CW’s retired version of Jefferson Pierce is a bit different than what fans may be expecting. In his heyday, Pierce moonlighted as Black Lightning, a meta-human with the power to harness electricity. When the midseason series begins, it has been over a decade since Jefferson hung up his suit to focus on family and his job as a principal of a charter high school, considered as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence.
No longer a vigilante superhero because of the stress it put on his marriage and family, he’s now considered a real-life hero to his community in the light of day. But he’s reluctantly pulled back into that dangerous life-or-death high-stakes world when his daughters, Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain), dealing with their own fledgling powers, get caught up with local gang the One Hundred. As the only Greg Berlanti-produced CW series to not exist within the Arrow-verse, Black Lightning will be a standalone series, grounded much more in reality than the others (meta-human powers aside).
Ever since this series was announced, fans have been eagerly waiting for the diverse and inspirational superhero to debut, but the network held it off for midseason. Thankfully the wait is almost over! Here’s the long-awaited good news for Black Lightning fans: The CW just announced that the new superhero drama will premiere Tuesday, January 16 at 9 p.m. Mark your calendars now!
Check out a 3D video of the new collectible above now, exclusively on Nerdist. It will be available for pre-order starting Monday, Nov. 20 at DCcollectibles.com, and will officially go on sale July 2018 for $130.
What do you think of Williams’ very first collectible statue? Are you as excited as I am for Black Lightning to finally premiere? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum and let’s be excited together!
Images: DC Entertainment, The CW
More Black Lightning, and other superhero series!
- Check out the first Black Lightning trailerÂ
- Who is Black Lightning? We’ve got the breakdown
- Five reasons to watch The Gifted
