It’s learned The CW is not moving forward on the Black Lightning spinoff and that plans for Painkiller have been canceled.
The news isn’t that all surprising as ratings for Black Lightning are in the toilet, with Black Lightning already canceled, so it’s not hard to assume the Painkiller spinoff would have done much better.
The last couple of episodes of Black Lightning have only averaged 350k viewers, so again, the writing has been on the wall.
The CW announced the news with the announcement that its Powerpuff series is getting scrapped in its current form and getting retooled, that the network also passed on Our Ladies of Brooklyn, that Tom Swift still has a chance for a series, and that it has picked up Ava DuVernay’s DC series, Naomi, and the shows, 4400 and All-American Homecoming.
The DC shows on The CW have been facing their lowest ratings of all time as last week saw the lowest ratings for The Flash and the recently returned Superman & Lois, with Supergirl and Batwoman having awful ratings, with the former canceled and the latter thought to be getting canceled, as Batwoman isn’t doing much better than Black Lightning in ratings.
Legends of Tomorrow is also four episodes into its Season 6 with the episodes averaging only around 425k viewers, a ratings low for the series as well.
The CW also passed on the Green Arrow spinoff.
Painkiller is described as:
Khalil Payne, aka Painkiller, is described as a man ridden with the guilt of his troubled past from his former life in Freeland City, where, 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.
s his violent, destructive history crashes his idyllic new beginning, Khalil is thrusted 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.
