HBO Max Officially Orders Jimmy Olsen Series, ‘The People v. Gorilla Grodd’
HBO Max‘s next DC Studios series will have a decidedly lighter tone than its current one.
The streamer has officially picked up The People v. Gorilla Grodd, a mockumentary centered on Daily Planet staffer Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo). The eight-episode show will show Jimmy directing and starring in a true-crime show that investigates “whether Gorilla Grodd was wrongly convicted in one of Metropolis’ most famous murder trials,” per the show’s logline.
Jimmy Tatro will play Gorilla Grodd, the superintelligent ape and sometime Superman nemesis. Gisondo will reprise his role from 2025’s Superman, as will Beck Bennett (Steve Lombard), Mikaela Hoover (Cat Grant) and Wendell Pierce (Perry White). Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Dan Perrault, Andrew Leeds and Tim Baltz also star.
The People v. Gorilla Grodd comes from American Vandal creators Perrault and Tony Yacenda, who serve as showrunners. Tatro starred in the first season of the Netflix series.
“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,” said DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. “We’re excited to work with the brilliant Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda to take the audience down some of the darker and funnier streets and alleyways of the DCU as Jimmy spotlights the Metropolis criminal justice system for his docuseries.”
Said Amy Gravitt, executive vp HBO Programming and head of HBO & HBO Max comedy series, “We are thrilled to be working with Tony and Dan, alongside James, Peter, the entire DC team and our colleagues at WBTV, to bring these iconic DCU characters to HBO Max in a new and unexpected way. We already know Skyler Gisondo is pitch-perfect as Jimmy Olsen, and we can’t wait for fans to experience Jimmy Tatro’s captivating and hilarious portrayal of Grodd.”
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As part of the series announcement, HBO Max offered up a mock Daily Planet press release touting Olsen’s documentary. It includes this quote from Pierce’s Perry White: “Everyone thinks they know Grodd: the power-hungry gorilla who killed his father for the throne of Gorilla City. But once you start to look beneath the fur, you start to realize there’s a lot more to that primate.”
The series order for The People v. Gorilla Grodd comes on the heels of DC Studios’ Lanterns scoring positive reviews and a big audience for its Aug. 16 series premiere. Lanterns has a considerably darker tone than the one the new series will shoot for.
“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,” said Yacenda and Perrault. “We hope it’ll appeal to fans of the comics, comedy and true crime. And while we can’t speak for audiences here yet, we already know it’s a huge hit in Metropolis. They love this series.”
Yacenda and Perrault are executive producing with Gunn and Safran; Yacenda will also direct every episode. Warner Bros. Television is the studio.
