The DC Universe franchise is breaking through in a major way with HBO’s Lanterns, but the next upcoming show in the franchise has people scratching their heads. The People v. Gorilla Grodd is currently in production; the series is a spinoff of James Gunn’s Superman (2025) movies, which sees Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) dipping into true crime for a docuseries about one of DC’s biggest villains, the mind-controlling simian mastermind, Gorilla Grodd.
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However, the more we see from the set of the show, the more (confusing? Intriguing? Exciting?) it becomes. There are apparently scenes of Grodd going to college, joining a glee club, and looking plenty swaggy in his graduation robes. But as we see how the DCU is interpreting Gorilla Grodd, it inevitably begs the question of how the franchise will interpret one major hero who is closely tied to Grodd.
Will DCU Flash Be As Wild As Gorilla Grodd?
The amount of depth to Gorilla Grodd’s DCU backstory already looks pretty remarkable. Grodd is a villain who has been appearing in DC comic books since The Flash #106 in 1959, and has plenty of lore built around him. He is often depicted as a being from the royal line of Gorilla City, an advanced civilization of super apes. Grodd gains (or steals) telepathy and mind control, an ability he often uses in his would-be conquest of Earth.
It’s the Flash who most often has to step up and stop Grodd’s world domination plots, and fans got a taste of what their rivalry looks like onscreen via the Arrowverse series The Flash in the 2010s. Grodd made several appearances on the show and was created using CGI, with actor David Sobolov voicing the character. He was often depicted as a fearsome foe, with a tone closer to a sci-fi/horror creature-feature.
The showrunners are Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, who are best known for doing episodes of rapper Lil’ Dicky’s series Dave, as well as American Vandal, Netflix’s mockumentary about some high school investigative journalists looking into a string of vandalism. That already kind of sets certain expectations for the comedic slant of The People v. Gorilla Grodd, especially since American Vandal star and notable comedic actor Jimmy Tatro is playing Grodd in the DCU series.
Even if they play Grodd straight as a villain, the world he occupies already looks like it will be comedically absurd. The Flash is already a character who is often the straight man in an absurdist world, where villains are often “rogues,” and the general tone is much lighter than Barry Allen’s (or Wally West’s) Justice League counterparts. The former DCEU franchise tried to play him that way in live-action, with actor Ezra Miller playing a bumbling comedic version of Barry Allen. Then again, The Flash TV show and its Barry Allen actor, Grant Gustin, are loved by many fans for adding layers of dramatic complexity to Barry, in addition to his comedic hijinks.
If Flash makes his first DCU debut in The People v. Gorilla Grodd (even as a cameo blur), it will be incredibly telling regarding how James Gunn is shaping the new franchise’s version of the character. We don’t even know which Flash we’re getting (Barry or Wally), but it already looks like the actor will have to have comedic chops that are as quick as his feet. Starting with just Grodd may just be the way James Gunn and DC Studios are soft-rolling fans into The Flash’s lane of the franchise, where something like Gorilla City could (finally) be adapted for the screen.
The People v. Gorilla Grodd is currently in production; there are no announced plans for a Flash DCU movie or TV series.
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Forum Conversation: LANTERNS EP 4 MANHUNTER REVEAL
Go to Forum“Atrocitus” huh LOL
We don’t know how Hal knows — the ring could have told him. We DO now that Hal is not in the habit of checking in, and he goes “with his gut”, so he could just be reacting to his perception of the information he has. The ring could have detected another ring being used when John has his test, and knowing he hasn’t exactly been a model corps member and his age now being more and more a factor, plus his ego… it’s more than likely his behaviour is all driven by assumptions (they are trying to replace me) that just happen to be partially correct, therefor (in his eyes) reinforcing the prospecting telling him all he thinks he needs to know.
What I do love about this show is it leverages the Rashomon storytelling style of telling one even from the perspective of different characters (sometime unreliably), and every time we are told what we “already know”, we actually learn more about what really happened. The answers are most likely right in front of us, it just hasn’t clicked (by design) from the right perspective yet.
Yeah, my comment wasn’t praise (per se) about John’s method — just pointing out their very different approaches — which I feel adds to their disconnect since they aren’t communicating motives. They could actually learn a lot from each other (both for this case, and how to be better Lanterns) had they not been played against each other by Lianna.
Personally, I don’t think time matters (narrative-wise) in relation to one or several Manhunters. They have no real individual personality or motivation outside their human cover, and since we’ve already been introduced to who they are and what they did, having one, three or ten hiding in the town, or hell — the whole town — would need little more setup. All the things you mention can be covered easily in the remaining four episodes, while also revealing half the town (for instance) are Manhunters seeking refuge from those searching for them. What If that is what Abin Sur discovered? Not one, but a colony of them — having Zoe as the narrative’s “representative” for them — and that way providing their exposition.