TL;DR
- HBO Max has officially ordered eight episodes of The People V. Gorilla Grodd straight to series.
- Skyler Gisondo reprises his Superman role as Jimmy Olsen, while Jimmy Tatro stars as Gorilla Grodd.
- The half-hour comedy is presented as an eight-part true-crime documentary produced by the Daily Planet.
- Jimmy investigates whether Grodd was wrongly convicted of murdering his father, the King of Gorilla City.
- Beck Bennett, Mikaela Hoover and Wendell Pierce also return from Superman as Steve Lombard, Cat Grant and Perry White.
- American Vandal creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault will serve as showrunners, writers and executive producers, with Yacenda directing all eight episodes.
- James Gunn and Peter Safran executive produce for DC Studios.
One of the strangest corners of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe is officially getting considerably stranger.
HBO Max has handed an eight-episode, straight-to-series order to The People V. Gorilla Grodd, a new half-hour comedy that will bring Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen and several members of the Daily Planet staff from Superman back into the DCU.
Instead of another conventional superhero adventure, the series will take the form of a true-crime documentary investigating one of Metropolis’ most notorious murder cases.
The accused?
Gorilla Grodd.
Jimmy Tatro will portray the superintelligent ape, who has been convicted of murdering his own father, the King of Gorilla City. Jimmy Olsen becomes convinced that there may be more to the case and reopens the investigation in an attempt to determine whether Grodd was wrongly convicted.
If that premise sounds like one of the more unusual superhero television projects ever greenlit, that appears to be exactly the point.
What Is The People V. Gorilla Grodd About?
The official logline reveals that Gorilla Grodd has already been convicted by the time the series begins.
Grodd’s father, the King of Gorilla City, has been murdered, and his son has apparently been found responsible for the crime. The case became one of the most famous murder trials in Metropolis.
Jimmy Olsen decides it deserves another look.
Over eight episodes, Jimmy reexamines the evidence surrounding the killing and investigates whether the supposed open-and-shut case may have resulted in an innocent Grodd being sent away for murdering his father.
The investigation will unfold as a Daily Planet-produced documentary rather than simply following Jimmy through a traditional narrative.
That distinction could make The People V. Gorilla Grodd unlike practically anything else currently planned for the DCU.
The Series Is Supposed To Feel Like A Real Documentary From Inside The DCU
Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault have made it clear that they do not want the series to feel like audiences are simply watching another television show set inside a superhero universe.
They want it to feel like something the people living in that universe would actually watch.
“We’re excited by the challenge of creating a series that feels less like an entry into the DCU and more like an artifact from it. A Daily Planet original documentary made for the people of Metropolis.”
That concept opens the door to something potentially much more interesting than a straightforward Jimmy Olsen spinoff.
Instead of watching the DC Universe entirely from the perspective of superheroes, audiences get to see how ordinary people living in Metropolis consume stories about the extraordinary events happening around them.
What does true crime television look like in a world where intelligent gorillas, aliens and superheroes actually exist?
Apparently, we’re about to find out.
Skyler Gisondo Returns As Jimmy Olsen
Skyler Gisondo will once again play Jimmy Olsen after making his DCU debut as the Daily Planet photographer in James Gunn’s Superman.
Jimmy became one of the film’s standout supporting characters, and The People V. Gorilla Grodd will give Gisondo an opportunity to move from Superman’s orbit into the center of his own story.
Gunn and Safran specifically pointed to Gisondo’s performance and the chemistry between the Daily Planet characters as the reason they wanted to explore this particular corner of the DCU further.
“Between Skyler’s wonderful performance and the fantastic chemistry of the Daily Planet cast, we knew coming out of Superman that this would be a fun world to explore.”
Rather than turning Jimmy into another costumed hero, the new series appears to be leaning into what makes him different.
He is a journalist.
Putting Jimmy in charge of an investigative documentary gives him his own way of confronting DC villains without attempting to turn him into Superman with a camera.
Jimmy Tatro Is Gorilla Grodd
Jimmy Tatro will take on the role of Gorilla Grodd, officially bringing one of DC’s most recognizable supervillains into the new shared universe.
Grodd has traditionally been associated most closely with the Flash and is usually depicted as an extraordinarily intelligent gorilla possessing formidable physical abilities and, depending on the version, powerful telepathic capabilities.
That comic history makes the premise especially amusing.
Instead of introducing Grodd by having him attack Central City or engage the Flash in a massive superhero battle, DC Studios is introducing him as the defendant at the center of a murder documentary.
Even more intriguingly, the premise immediately raises the possibility that Grodd may not actually be guilty.
The series could play with audience expectations surrounding a character comic readers already recognize as a villain. Viewers may begin the story convinced they know exactly what kind of person—or ape—they are dealing with, only for Jimmy’s investigation to complicate that assumption.
The Daily Planet Cast From Superman Is Coming Back
Jimmy will not be the only familiar face returning from Superman.
Beck Bennett reprises his role as Daily Planet reporter Steve Lombard, while Mikaela Hoover returns as Cat Grant and Wendell Pierce once again plays editor-in-chief Perry White.
That gives the series an established workplace ensemble rather than forcing the spinoff to rebuild Jimmy’s world from scratch.
The returning cast includes:
- Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen
- Jimmy Tatro as Gorilla Grodd
- Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard
- Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant
- Wendell Pierce as Perry White
The additional ensemble includes Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Dan Perrault, Andrew Leeds and Tim Baltz. Their character names have not yet been announced.
The American Vandal Team Is Running The Show
The creative team may be the biggest clue for what HBO Max has planned.
Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault will serve as writers, showrunners and executive producers on The People V. Gorilla Grodd, while Yacenda will direct all eight episodes.
The pair previously created Netflix’s American Vandal, which famously used the visual language and structure of prestige true-crime documentaries to investigate increasingly ridiculous mysteries while still treating its characters and investigations with surprising sincerity.
That approach seems almost perfectly suited to Jimmy Olsen investigating whether an intelligent gorilla murdered the King of Gorilla City.
The joke cannot simply be that Gorilla Grodd is ridiculous.
The fun comes from treating the investigation with the same seriousness a prestigious documentary would give a real criminal case.
Expect Comedy, But Also A Darker Look At Metropolis
Despite the half-hour comedy format, Gunn and Safran are already teasing that the series could explore some surprisingly serious territory.
The DC Studios executives say Jimmy’s documentary will examine the Metropolis criminal justice system while taking audiences into some of the “darker and funnier” parts of the DCU.
That immediately gives the show’s murder mystery a larger purpose.
If Grodd was wrongly convicted, why?
Was the investigation mishandled?
Did authorities assume an intelligent gorilla had to be responsible?
Was evidence ignored because prosecutors wanted an easy conviction in a highly publicized case?
Or is Grodd simply manipulating Jimmy into becoming part of a much bigger scheme?
Any of those directions could work while allowing the series to satirize true-crime entertainment and examine how justice operates in a world filled with superpowered defendants.
Will Superman Appear?
David Corenswet has not been announced as part of the cast.
That does not necessarily mean Superman cannot appear, but nothing in the series announcement confirms his involvement.
And the show may be better served by keeping the focus elsewhere.
One of the most interesting opportunities created by a connected DC Universe is allowing supporting characters to have stories that do not require Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman to become the center of everything.
Metropolis existed before Clark Kent walked into the Daily Planet, and thousands of people continue living there when Superman is somewhere else saving the world.
The People V. Gorilla Grodd gives DC Studios a chance to show what one of those stories looks like.
Could The Flash Become Part Of The Story?
Gorilla Grodd’s inclusion will inevitably make fans wonder whether the series could begin establishing the DCU’s version of the Flash.
Grodd is one of the speedster’s most famous enemies in the comics, animated television and previous live-action adaptations.
However, DC Studios has not announced a Flash appearance for The People V. Gorilla Grodd.
The series could easily introduce Grodd independently and save his relationship with the Flash for another project.
That might actually be the smarter approach.
Giving Grodd an eight-episode story before he ever becomes somebody’s supervillain could make him far more interesting whenever that confrontation eventually happens.
The People V. Gorilla Grodd Could Show How Flexible The DCU Really Is
DC Studios has repeatedly talked about allowing individual projects to have their own identities instead of forcing everything into the same superhero formula.
The People V. Gorilla Grodd may become one of the clearest tests of that philosophy.
This is technically a Superman spinoff featuring a famous Flash villain.
Yet its actual premise is an eight-part true-crime comedy about a newspaper photographer attempting to overturn the murder conviction of a telepathic gorilla accused of killing his royal father.
That is an extraordinarily specific idea.
And that’s exactly why it could work.
If the DCU is going to feel like an actual universe instead of a sequence of superhero movies advertising the next superhero movie, there should be room for stories this strange.
Jimmy Olsen already knows Superman.
Now he has a murder to solve.
And somewhere in Metropolis, Gorilla Grodd is waiting for the world to decide whether he’s a killer.
DC Fanboy! Superman is the greatest comic book character of all time. Favorite movies are Man of Steel, Goonies, Back To the Future
