The CW Orders ‘Black Lightning’ Pilot ‘Painkiller’

The CW has ordered a pilot for a potential spinoff drama from “Black Lightning” from Warner Bros. Television centered on the character Painkiller. The pilot will air within an episode of “Black Lightning” during the upcoming fourth season and will feature Jordan Calloway in the lead. The logline: Based on characters created for DC by Tony Isabella with Eddie Newell, “Painkiller” follows 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.

“Painkiller,” who first appeared in comics in 1995, is based on characters created for DC by Tony Isabella and Eddie Newell.