After reports last week that Jimmy Tatro was in talks to join DC Studios’ upcoming Jimmy Olsen series, the casting is now official. The actor will play the iconic DC Comics villain Gorilla Grodd opposite Skyler Gisondo, who reprises his role as the Daily Planet photographer following last year’s blockbuster “Superman.”
The untitled HBO Max series—previously rumored to be called “DC Crime,” a title James Gunn has since denied—is being developed as a mockumentary-style true-crime series. Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen serves as host, investigating notorious supervillains from across the DC Universe, with the first season centered on Gorilla Grodd.
Tatro’s casting marks another comedic turn for the actor, who recently appeared in “Scream 7” and first broke out with “American Vandal.” While best known for playing affable goofballs, he’ll now voice—or potentially perform via motion capture—the hyper-intelligent telepathic ape, one of DC’s most formidable villains and a longtime nemesis of The Flash.
The series continues DC Studios’ strategy of expanding the world introduced in James Gunn’s “Superman” through character-focused spinoffs. Alongside the Jimmy Olsen project, a Mister Terrific series has also been in development, while the long-gestating Amanda Waller series starring Viola Davis remains somewhere in the studio’s plans. Gunn and Peter Safran are building the interconnected DC Universe across film, television, and animation.
Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, the creative duo behind “American Vandal,” are writing, executive producing, and serving as showrunners on the series, reuniting with Tatro on another mockumentary-inflected project. No premiere date has been announced [via Deadline]
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
