Jimmy Olsen Goes True Crime as HBO Max Orders The People v. Gorilla Grodd
Jimmy Olsen is trading award-winning Daily Planet headlines and photographs for one of the strangest murder cases in the DC Universe. HBO Max has officially ordered The People v. Gorilla Grodd, an eight-episode, half-hour comedy from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television, with Skyler Gisondo reprising his breakout Superman role as Jimmy Olsen and Jimmy Tatro starring as Gorilla Grodd.
The series will unfold as an eight-part “true” crime documentary produced within the world of the DCU. After the superintelligent Grodd is convicted of murdering his father, the King of Gorilla City, Jimmy reopens the case to determine whether one of Metropolis’ most notorious defendants was actually wrongly convicted. It is a wild premise, but one that fits the character behind the camera. Jimmy has spent generations in Superman comics chasing stories, danger and the impossible alongside Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Now, the DCU is giving him an investigation of his own.
Gisondo will not be the only Superman cast member returning to the Daily Planet. Beck Bennett is back as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover returns as Cat Grant and Wendell Pierce once again steps behind the editor’s desk as Perry White. Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Andrew Leeds, Tim Baltz and co-showrunner Dan Perrault have also joined the cast.
The official order also confirms Holland after Deadline reported earlier this month that she had been cast as the series’ female lead, Sandra. DC Studios and HBO Max did not confirm her character at the time, and today’s announcement lists Holland among the ensemble without revealing who she will play. Behind the camera, American Vandal creators Tony Yacenda and Perrault will write, executive produce and serve as showrunners, with Yacenda directing all eight episodes. James Gunn and Peter Safran will executive produce for DC Studios.
Gunn described the project as DC Studios’ “first foray into the true crime genre” and said the series is “something truly special.” He also revealed that this concept, along with Lanterns, was among the ideas he and Safran pitched before they officially took control of DC Studios.
For longtime DC fans, the title character comes with more than six decades of history. Gorilla Grodd was created by writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino and made his first appearance in The Flash #106 in 1959. The hyper-intelligent, telepathic powerhouse has traditionally been one of Barry Allen’s most dangerous enemies, repeatedly attempting to conquer Gorilla City, humanity and sometimes both. His comic-book abilities have included telepathy, telekinesis, super strength and genius-level intelligence.
That history makes his arrival in a Superman-connected project especially intriguing. No Flash has been announced for the series, but Grodd’s presence opens another door into a major corner of the DC Universe that the new DCU has yet to fully explore.
No premiere date has been revealed just yet, but with Jimmy Olsen leading an investigation, familiar Daily Planet faces returning and one of the Flash’s greatest villains sitting at the center of a murder mystery, The People v. Gorilla Grodd may be one of the DCU’s strangest ideas yet—and that may be exactly what makes it worth watching.
