HBO Max’s Jimmy Olsen ‘Superman’ spinoff with Skyler Gisondo gets official title
HBO Max has ordered eight half-hour episodes of ‘The People v. Gorilla Grodd,’ a ‘Superman’ spinoff led by Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy Tatro will play the DC super-villain in the comedy, which is presented as a fictional true-crime documentary inside James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU. No premiere date has been announced.
The official logline reads, “A superintelligent ape (Tatro) is convicted of murdering his father, the King of Gorilla City. In an eight-part ‘true’ crime docuseries, the Daily Planet’s Jimmy Olsen (Gisondo) reopens the case, investigating whether Gorilla Grodd was wrongly convicted in one of Metropolis’ most famous murder trials.”
Gisondo returns to the role he played in the 2025 film ‘Superman,’ while the series reunites several members of the Daily Planet team. Beck Bennett will reprise his role as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover will return as Cat Grant and Wendell Pierce will play Perry White again. Mary Holland, Eduardo Franco, Arian Moayed, Dan Perrault, Andrew Leeds and Tim Baltz are also part of the cast.
‘American Vandal’ creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault will serve as writers, showrunners and executive producers. Yacenda is set to direct all eight episodes, while Perrault will also appear in the series. Gunn and Safran will executive produce for DC Studios, which is making the project with Warner Bros. Television.
The project brings Yacenda and Perrault back to a format they used on Netflix’s ‘American Vandal,’ a mockumentary that spoofed true-crime storytelling. Tatro and Franco both appeared in the first season of that series. Yacenda and Perrault later created the esports mockumentary ‘Players’ for Paramount+.
“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,” Gunn and Safran said. “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.” The series was first reported to be in development in November 2025 and has now received a straight-to-series order. Its launch date and production schedule have not been disclosed.
