Warning: Spoilers Ahead. After four seasons, Black Lightning came to an end on The CW on Monday, May 24. Not only did viewers get closure for their favorite characters, but fans were surprised with the return of star China Anne McClain, who left the show just before it started filming the final season.
“After four seasons, the game-changing, relevant and electrifying series comes to an end,” the episode’s synopsis read, per The CW, and they definitely came through with some major surprises. Along with the Descendants alum’s return to the series, the finale included a major character’s death, a marriage announcement and goodbyes to some major characters, including Black Lightning himself. Cress Williams, who played the superhero for all four seasons, ended his run on the series by putting Black Lightning into retirement.
“The original piece of dialogue said that I full-on retire,” the actor explained to EW after the finale. “I changed it slightly to basically say, ‘I’m done in Freeland and just kind of like giving Freeland over to my daughter.’ So that if I show up somewhere else, I haven’t contradicted anything.”
That means, there’s a possibility fans may be able to see him, once again, in The Flash. Here’s to hoping!
The finale also starred cast members Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, James Remar, Marvin Jones III, Chantal Thuy and Jordan Calloway. Initially, once Black Lightning came to an end, Jordan — who fans may recognize from the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous — was set to reprise his role in a spinoff series, titled Painkiller. Hours before the Black Lightning series finale premiered, the actor announced that the show would not be moving forward on The CW.
“Painkiller will not be going forward, so let’s rip that band-aid off now,” Jordan said in an Instagram video. “Man, doing this project has been nothing more but, nothing less than a blessing. I can’t put into words how grateful I am. From the experiences that I’ve learned, from the relationships I’ve made, it has been a blast. It has been phenomenal.”
The actor concluded his video by urging fans to watch the Black Lightning finale and said, “So as we lay this character to rest and we move on to the next chapter, I just want to say thank you guys. You’re amazing, I love you all.”
So where did Khalil Payne end up if there’s no spinoff in the works? Scroll through our gallery to see how the show ended for each Black Lightning characters.
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