DC Studios' HBO show about Gorilla Grodd is actually happening

The Flash isn't in the new DCU yet, but one of his fiercest villains will be soon

DC Studios' television output under James Gunn and Peter Safran is, if nothing else, eclectic, thanks to shows like Creature Commandos, Peacemaker, and the upcoming serious superhero drama Lanterns. The DCU is about to get even weirder thanks to a new, still-untitled series that will put longtime Flash villain Gorilla Grodd front and center.

The Gorilla Grodd project was reported late last year, and was described at the time as a series focusing on Daily Planet photojournalist Jimmy Olsen, who was played by Skyler Gisondo in 2025's Superman. Olsen was described as the star of the HBO show, which was created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, creators of American Vandal, a mockumentary parody of true-crime shows.

According to Safran, co-chairman and CEO of DC Studios, that show is now a "Gorilla Grodd show" and it will start filming later this year.

Safran spoke to Brazilian content creator Good Nerd this weekend at the Supergirl premiere in Rio de Janeiro, and confirmed that the Jimmy Olsen/Gorilla Grodd project is one of many DC Studios projects in development.

When asked about DC Studios' plans for a new Justice League movie, Safran declined to confirm such a project, and said, "We know eventually [we'll] head in that direction, but we really are just talking about those projects we’ve announced: Supergirl, Lanterns for HBO, Clayface this fall, Man of Tomorrow, The Batman Part 2, [and] we’re gonna do Brave and the Bold introducing Batman into the DCU. We’ve talked about the Gorilla Grodd show for HBO that we’ll start shooting this year … Big news, by the way, I probably shouldn’t have said that."

Safran echoed what DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has said in the past, that "it’s really important for us to get the script right, to get the story right, [and] we’re not in any rush" to make certain projects.

Based on that, it sounds like the Gorilla Grodd/Jimmy Olsen TV series has nailed the story. Putting a super-intelligent telepathic gorilla in a leading role is guaranteed to be one of DC Studios' more interesting projects, at the very least.

Gorilla Grodd was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, and first appeared in The Flash #106 in 1959. Grodd has appeared in multiple DC animated and video game projects over the past 50 years. The super-ape has also appeared in live-action in The CW's Arrowverse, originally in The Flash and later in Legends of Tomorrow. Grodd's most infamous live-action appearance features the gorilla traveling back in time to kill a college-aged Barack Obama. In that episode, Grodd actually says, "Time to make America Grodd again." Whether HBO's take on Gorilla Grodd can possibly top that remains to be seen.

DC Studios' next project, Supergirl starring Milly Alcock and Jason Momoa, arrives in movie theaters on June 26. That will be followed by Lanterns on Aug. 16 and the studio's first R-rated feature, Clayface, on Oct. 23. As for the Gorilla Grodd show, it sounds like we won't get that until 2027 at the earliest.