A day after news broke that The CW declined to renew its superhero series “Black Lightning,” China Anne McClain spoke out and revealed she’d planned to leave the show.
McClain, who plays Jennifer Pierce, aka Lightning on the show, posted a nearly 13-minute video to her Instagram Story Saturday, explaining she plans to focus her attention on projects that are aligned with her faith.
McClain said she’s leaving “for different reasons” that she didn’t want to discuss. She noted that she had only “agreed to do a certain number of episodes” for the upcoming fourth and final season.
“There’s been a lot to happen over this quarantine, and I’m not talking about the PC side of it,” the Decatur native said in the video. “These people that are dying and the way of the world now. It’s real. And all this is an illusion. This industry for what it is and everything that people look to and praise, it’s not important.
“God is moving me in more than one way than just this show. It’s bigger than this show. I’m doing God’s work now and I’m not doing anything else,” she added.
Additionally, McClain made it clear that her departure was not due to any issues with the network, naming executives Mark Pedowitz and Peter Roth, who are the CW network president and Warner Bros. president respectively, as well as “Black Lighting” executive producer Greg Berlanti and showrunner Salim Akil among people she likes.
“All of these things that people think are so important, it’s not about these things,” she said. “There’s only one truth and I’m going to live in that truth until I die. I don’t care how anybody feels about it at this point. I’ve made my decision. I’ve learned a lot on this show and I’m grateful for it.”
Acknowledging the importance of representation in film and television, McClain said “we need the spirit again in these projects.”
“I don’t know where it’s gone,” she said, becoming emotional. “I can only pinpoint a few of them and it hurts me to watch.”
“I’m ready for things to change and I want to help,” she added. “I’m done teeny bopping around here. It’s not about making the next best move. It’s not about me. I don’t even care about that anymore. ... I want to be a part of the good and if I’m not currently really a part of it ... I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Before concluding the video, she wished Akil the best and encouraged her fans to support the spinoff focused on the villain, Jordan Calloway’s character Painkiller, which is currently in development.
The last season of “Black Lightning” premieres Monday, Feb. 8 at 9 p.m. on The CW.
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