HBO Max has ordered an eight-episode comedy about Gorilla Grodd, and the setup is stranger than a normal DC villain spinoff. The People v. Gorilla Grodd brings Skyler Gisondo back as Jimmy Olsen, then sends him into a true-crime investigation about whether the superintelligent ape was wrongly convicted of murdering his father.
The series comes from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television, with American Vandal creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault running the show. There is no release date yet, but the order, title, format, premise, and main cast are official.
Jimmy Olsen is reopening Metropolis’s strangest murder trial
Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen first appeared in James Gunn’s Superman as a Daily Planet photographer. In this series, Jimmy turns that job into a documentary investigation. Gorilla Grodd has already been convicted of killing his father, the King of Gorilla City, but Jimmy reopens the case to find out whether Metropolis got the verdict wrong.
The setup puts the Daily Planet in a different kind of DC story. Jimmy is not being sent to punch through another invasion or wait for Superman to solve the hard part. He is following a case, talking to people connected to it, and building a documentary around a defendant that most of the city has already decided to hate.
The Daily Planet cast is coming back
The series keeps several Superman actors in the newsroom. Beck Bennett returns as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover plays Cat Grant, and Wendell Pierce is back as Perry White. They join Jimmy Tatro, who will play Gorilla Grodd, along with Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Andrew Leeds, and Tim Baltz.
That lineup gives the show a familiar home before it introduces its most unusual case. Perry White and the Daily Planet staff can make the mockumentary feel connected to Superman without turning every episode into a search for a cameo. The announced cast does not include David Corenswet or Rachel Brosnahan, and no Superman or Lois Lane appearance has been confirmed.
The American Vandal team is behind the joke
The People v. Gorilla Grodd is an eight-part, half-hour comedy presented as a true-crime docuseries. Yacenda is set to direct all of the episodes, while he and Perrault serve as writers, showrunners, and executive producers. James Gunn and Peter Safran are also executive producers.
That creative pairing explains why the format is not just a costume joke. American Vandal treated fake evidence, interviews, and over-serious narration as part of the story rather than decoration. The new series can use the same structure for a case that is ridiculous on paper but still needs to work as a mystery inside Metropolis.
Why Gorilla Grodd fits a fake true-crime series
Gorilla Grodd is usually presented as a superintelligent telepathic ape with ambitions far larger than one murder trial. He is one of those comic-book villains who can turn a city fight into a strange science-fiction problem, which makes a courtroom investigation a much funnier direction than another giant battle.
The title also gives casual viewers a clean entry point. You do not need decades of DC history to understand a reporter reopening a famous case. The show can explain Gorilla City, Grodd’s reputation, and the old conviction as Jimmy finds new evidence. Fans get a deeper look at a villain; everyone else gets a murder documentary led by a very persistent photographer.
What DC has not announced yet
HBO Max has not announced a release date, filming schedule, trailer, or episode-by-episode plan. The eight-episode order and half-hour format are confirmed, but the announcement does not say whether this is a one-season story or the start of an anthology. It joins other DC television projects, including Lanterns, without sharing that show’s grounded crime-drama tone.
There is also no confirmation that the series will bring in other Superman characters beyond the Daily Planet group already named. Suggestions about Superman, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, or The Flash belong in the speculation column until DC announces them.
The show’s hardest part will be making the case matter
The premise is funny before the first episode starts, but the joke cannot carry eight episodes by itself. Jimmy needs a real reason to doubt the conviction, Grodd needs more than a punchline, and the Daily Planet team needs enough personality to make each interview feel different from the last one.
If the series treats the murder case seriously inside its own strange world, it could become one of the DCU’s most distinctive side stories. The best version would let Jimmy chase a ridiculous answer while still giving the audience a mystery worth solving. Would you watch Jimmy Olsen investigate Gorilla Grodd, or does this sound too far away from Superman?
