Skyler Gisondo, who played the role of Jimmy Olsen in James Gunn‘s Superman, is set to reprise the role in a new, format-bending series from the creators of American Vandal. Titled DC Crime, Variety reports that HBO Max is developing a (fake) true crime docuseries set in the DC Universe.
The first season of DC Crime will center on Gorilla Grodd, which could suggest plans to cast The Flash — although it’s equally likely the story would center on Grodd’s political battles with Solovar in Gorilla City.
DC Crime is the second DC TV series announced today, after news that HBO will launch an adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd‘s V for Vendetta.
Rumors of a Jimmy Olsen TV series have been circulating since the release of Superman this summer, but the conventional wisdom was that such a series would be some version of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. The true crime angle — taking Jimmy out of the role of photojournalist and making him on-air talent — is an interesting idea, and one that makes a lot of sense given how canonically irresistible he is in the DC Universe. The true crime format also, presumably, opens up any number of possibilities for cameos by “experts” from around the DC Universe to opine on the crimes, or other members of the Daily Planet staff to provide context.
Gisondo, despite his relative youth, is a Hollywood veteran at this point, having started acting as a child in 2003. He has experience in both feature film and TV franchises, having appeared in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the Amazing Spider-Man movies, and as B-Dawg in the Air Buddies films. Gisondo also had notable runs on The Bill Engvall Show and Psych. In the latter, he was one of three young actors to play Shawn Spencer in flashbacks. Funny enough, another “young Shawn,” Liam James, starred alongside Superman‘s María Gabriela de Faría in Deadly Class.
The characters of Grodd and Solovar made their live-action debut on The CW’s long-running superhero drama The Flash. Grodd also appeared in an episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, in which he (in)famously tried to murder a college-aged Barack Obama, in a scene John Oliver called “the single best ten seconds of TV I have ever seen.”
Gunn and his DC co-chief Peter Safran will executive produce the series for DC Studios, with American Vandal‘s Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault serving as writers and showrunners. According to Variety, DC Studios’ Galen Vaisman will take point overseeing the project for DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television.
