To say that the fan journey with DC’s upcoming Jimmy Olsen television series has been, well, a journey would be something of an understatement. When it was first announced in November 2025 that a spinoff of James Gunn’s Superman movie centering around Skylar Gisondo’s Jimmy was in the works, fans were intrigued. That intrigue deepened when it was announced that Jimmy Tatro was coming on board as fan-favorite villain Gorilla Grodd, and then opinion shifted wildly again when it was revealed that various other in-development series had been scrapped while Jimmy Olsen’s series remained. As you might guess, fans were a little upset that Paradise Lost was out, but Jimmy remained. However, things are back on the uptick these days as set photos for The People v. Gorilla Grodd have emerged giving us our first look at Grodd in the series and they’re, well, they’re something.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The first set photos have offered up Grodd as realized in a fully practical gorilla suit which is something no one really expected, but it’s not just photos that have been surfacing. There have been videos as well, revealing Grodd apparently performing as part of an acapella group, serenading a lady (maybe a girlfriend?), and most recently, performing LMFAO’s 2011 absolute banger hit “Party Rock Anthem.” It’s the kind of bonkers that no one really saw coming even with The People v. Gorilla Grodd being described as a mocumentary and some have even gone so far as to compare it to something you’d expect on The CW, not HBO and while that was probably not meant as a compliment I’m here to tell you something: the comparison is absolutely right and it’s also not a bad thing at all.
The CW’s The Flash Got a Lot Right and The People v. Gorilla Grodd is Right to Embrace Parts of It
It’s easy to look back at The CW’s DC Universe — the Arrowverse mostly, but all of the DC-based shows more broadly — and kind of look at the things that didn’t exactly age well. As series wore on, there was a decline in the quality of CGI, heavily repetitive plot elements (particularly on The Flash), uneven tone, and things got pretty soap opera-y. We’re not even going to get into Arrow’s fridging issues. But something that the shows did get right is that they did embrace a lot of very comic booky elements and this was especially true when it came to The Flash and its utilization of some of the weirder characters from DC history.
The Flash did a fantastic job of embracing the bright, weird, campy villains from DC Comics, not only giving the bad guy of the week format some flavor but also bringing some true delight to screen. King Shark? It was like having a crazy kaiju in Central City but the show gave him humanity. Rainbow Raider? Dude had some very weird powers but he was still a formidable foe. The Trickster? They got Mark Hamill, y’all. They even brought in Gorilla Grodd. The Flash also did something else that never let you forget that it was a show based on comic books at their absolute wackiest and that would be the musical episodes. Technically, there is only one official musical and that is “Duet”, a crossover between The Flash and Supergirl. But there are a handful of episodes of The Flash where we see different musical performances built into the story and they count. And they’re great.
That’s what the videos of Grodd singing have reminded me of: a combination of the light and bright and delightfully odd elements of comics that The Flash brought to life so well when it wasn’t bogged down with Barry endlessly breaking the timeline. The stakes were always real, but there was still space for something a little less serious and that is exactly the tone that Gunn’s DCU needs, particularly when bringing in a character like Grodd. Comic book stories need whimsy for the more serious elements to really work and by giving The People v. Gorilla Grodd an elevated version of Arrowverse The Flash energy, the series will inject exactly that into the DCU. The comics are all about a balance between serious and fun, the best seasons of the Arrowverse embraced that, and these set photos and videos make it clear that the DCU understands that as well. It’s making me more excited than ever for this Jimmy Olsen series. Besides, gorillas sell comics and maybe singing gorillas get people to watch television, too.
