Arrowverse Sets ‘Painkiller’ Spinoff Backdoor Pilot In ‘Black Lightning’
CW’s Arrowverse is about to try another spin-off series as they announce Jordan Calloway’s ‘Painkiller’ will get a backdoor pilot as part of the upcoming fourth season of ‘Black Lightning‘.
The series is set to follow Khalil Payne (Calloway), a young man ridden with the guilt of his troubled past from his former life in Freeland City. 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 his. As his violent, destructive history crashes his idyllic new beginning, Khalil is thrust 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.
‘Black Lightning’ showrunner Salim Akil is set to write, exec produce and direct the possible spin-off pilot, with Berlanti Productions, Akil Productions and DC Entertainment in association with WBTV producing.
The character of Painkiller was originally created in 1995 by Tony Isabella with Eddie Newell, making his first appearance in Black Lightning, Vol. 2, Issue 2. Much like the comic book version, the Arrowverse Painkiller is a metahuman with Enhanced strength, stamina and healing, and a paralytic venomous touch. On the TV series, he has flipped back and forth between villain and hero, which could make for an interesting antihero story for the growing CW superhero slate.
‘Black Lightning‘ Season 4 premieres February 08, 2021, at 9pm on The CW in the USA. Last season, the drama aired as a boxset on Netflix in the UK. Assuming it does that again, we’ll have to wait for it to complete it’s run overseas before we get it here… That likely places the UK air date around June(ish) 2021 at the earliest (depending how many episodes this season has), but we’ll let you know when we have something confirmed.
