‘Black Lightning’: Marvin ‘Krondon’ James III Talks Fight Scene With Cress Williams

“Black Lightning” star Marvin “Krondon” James III opened up about filming the fight scene between his character Tobias Whale and Cress Williams’ titular vigilante in this week’s episode of the CW series.

“Cress and I haven’t had a lot of scenes together, we’ve been on opposite sides of the wall,” Jones told Entertainment Weekly. “When we have met [in the jazz club in Season 1, episode 7] it’s been really quick, like the second he blasted me I was out of there. With this one [in Season 1, episode 12], there was a lot of training involved, and we had to get really close and personal.”

James added that he came to the set that day more than ready. “I wanted to come to the fight overly prepared, because I knew he was going to do the same,” James said of Williams, “and we could have time to work this out. We were actually talking about it over the weekend.”

The rapper-actor went on to reveal that they filmed the fight scene without any doubles. “It’s interesting we didn’t really use doubles in this fight,” James said, admitting that shooting the scene wasn’t easy.

“To come together in the moment and create that magic, it was tiring,” James said. “That scene was really intense for everybody — me, Cress, Jordan Calloway [who plays Khalil]. We were in that school for 14 or 15 hours shooting every intricate detail of that scene. Physically it was traumatic, especially for the guy with the big suit on. I’m just hoping it came off great and people enjoy it.”

While this week’s fight scene was one of the big scenes on the show so far, James teased that “they have even bigger scenes happening next week” in the Season 1 finale.

According to the synopsis for the season ender, the aftermath of the showdown between Tobias and Black Lightning at Garfield High leaves everyone reeling.

In the trailer for the hour, a group of armed men shows up and surrounds the cabin where the Pierce family is hiding. To keep Jennifer (China Anne McClain) and Lynn (Christine Adams) safe, Jefferson and Anissa (Nafessa Williams) take down the mysterious guys who are likely sent by the ASA.

Meanwhile, Tobias, Khalil and Syonide (Charlbi Dean) make a surprise attack on ASA’s headquarters. Though Tobias and his minions are working for the ASA, it was previously revealed that the leader of The 100 gang also has plans to take out ASA’s boss Martin Proctor (Gregg Henry).

“Black Lightning” Season 1 finale, titled “Shadow of Death: The Book of War,” airs on Tuesday, April 17 at 9 p.m. EDT on The CW. Watch the trailer for the episode below: