The People V. Gorilla Grodd Ordered at HBO Max With Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen

Y’all, Superman has aliens, Green Lanterns, metahumans and enough world-ending threats to keep everybody busy for decades. So naturally, HBO Max looked at this enormous universe and said, “You know what we need? Jimmy Olsen investigating whether a talking gorilla was wrongly convicted of murdering his royal father.” And you know what? We’re listening.

HBO Max has officially handed an eight-episode, straight-to-series order to The People V. Gorilla Grodd, a new half-hour comedy from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television that might be one of the strangest ideas to come out of the new DCU so far. Skyler Gisondo will reprise his Superman role as Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen, while Jimmy Tatro will play Gorilla Grodd, the superintelligent ape at the center of one very messy Metropolis murder case.

The series comes from Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, the creators of American Vandal, which immediately makes this whole thing make a lot more sense. Instead of giving Jimmy a traditional superhero spinoff, The People V. Gorilla Grodd will be presented as an eight-part “true crime” documentary produced inside the DC Universe. Yes, DC is giving us true crime about a potentially murderous gorilla. Television is beautiful sometimes.

Jimmy Olsen Has Himself a Murder Case

Here is where things get wonderfully ridiculous. Gorilla Grodd has been convicted of murdering his father, the King of Gorilla City, in what has become one of Metropolis’ most famous murder trials. Jimmy isn't convinced the authorities got it right, so he reopens the case and investigates whether Grodd may have been wrongly convicted.

That means instead of watching Jimmy run around behind Superman taking pictures of exploding buildings, we're getting to see him actually be a journalist. It's a smart way to build a series around the character without suddenly deciding Jimmy needs a cape, superpowers or some mysterious destiny. He's a reporter with a suspicious mind and apparently enough confidence to question the murder conviction of an extremely intelligent gorilla. We respect the commitment to journalism, but maybe keep Superman's number on speed dial.

The true-crime approach also gives DC Studios an opportunity to show us something we haven't seen much of yet: what everyday media actually looks like inside this universe. Imagine living in Metropolis and casually turning on a prestige documentary about whether Gorilla Grodd murdered the King of Gorilla City. That's just Tuesday night television for these people.

The Daily Planet Crew Is Coming With Him

Gisondo won't be making the jump to television alone. Beck Bennett returns as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover is back as Cat Grant and Wendell Pierce will once again play Daily Planet editor Perry White. Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Dan Perrault, Andrew Leeds and Tim Baltz round out the announced ensemble, although details about their characters are being kept under wraps.

Bringing back the Daily Planet crew is probably the smartest part of this entire idea. One of the pleasures of Superman was watching that newsroom operate like an actual workplace filled with very different personalities, and Gisondo's Jimmy quickly became one of its most entertaining supporting players. Rather than separating him completely from that world,

HBO Max is using the chemistry that already worked and giving those characters a much stranger playground. James Gunn and Peter Safran are executive producing alongside Yacenda and Perrault, with Yacenda set to direct all eight episodes.

American Vandal Meets the DC Universe? Say Less

The involvement of Yacenda and Perrault might be what takes The People V. Gorilla Grodd from a funny concept to something genuinely interesting. American Vandal worked because it understood exactly how seriously true-crime documentaries take themselves, then applied that language to increasingly ridiculous investigations without treating the characters like the joke.

That same approach could be perfect here. Gorilla Grodd being accused of murdering his father is inherently absurd when you say it out loud, but imagine everyone in the documentary treating this like the O.J. Simpson trial of Metropolis. Give us dramatic archival footage. Give us suspicious timelines. Give us a Daily Planet expert pointing at a map of Gorilla City while ominous music plays underneath. We are already seated.

More importantly, this is the kind of project that can make the DCU feel like an actual world instead of a collection of superhero movies and shows that occasionally reference one another. If people in Metropolis have their own documentaries, media obsessions and sensational criminal cases involving supervillains, suddenly we're seeing what it might actually feel like to live there.

There is currently no premiere date for The People V. Gorilla Grodd, but HBO Max officially has our attention. We didn't wake up today expecting to become emotionally invested in whether Gorilla Grodd was framed for patricide, yet here we are.