James Gunn’s DCU continues to expand, including a surprising early project that may continue to set up a key supervillain big bad. Starring one of Superman’s breakout characters, the newly announced DCU series, DC Crime, has lots of potential.
While we don’t know a lot about the first Superman spin-off series, we do know that the lead role will belong to Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen, photographer and journalist at The Daily Planet (and supposedly still current boyfriend to Eve Tessmacher).
However, this new spin-off may also help set up a long-term threat in the DCU, positioning a key villain to fill a Thanos-style role James Gunn insists won’t belong to Darkseid.
Jimmy Olsen Is Getting His Own Superman Spin-Off Series, “DC Crime”
DC Crime is an upcoming DCU series with Gisondo reprising his role as Jimmy Olsen, continuing directly from 2025’s Superman. Likewise, the show will reportedly follow Oslen as he covers various metahumans and supervillains across the DC Universe for The Daily Planet.
The concept alone is incredibly fresh for live-action DC. Instead of a standard superhero narrative, DC Crime sounds like it may be a comedic investigative “mockumentary” series that will allow viewers to explore the DCU from more of a grounded human perspective. As such, there’s no better DCU character to provide that perspective than Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen.
With Featured Villains Like Gorilla Grodd, A Jimmy Olsen Show Sounds Incredible
According to reports, DC Crime’s first season will have a large focus on Gorilla Grodd, one of the Flash’s most dangerous and intelligent villains. First appearing in 1959, Grodd is an incredibly super-intelligent gorilla who gained mental powers after being exposed to a strange meteorite’s radiation, often ruling “Gorilla City” with an ambition to conquer the entire world.
Beyond the page, fans of the CW’s Flash series should also be quite familiar with Grodd, who made recurring appearances in various Arrowverse shows over the years.
Grodd’s alleged inclusion helps confirm that this upcoming spin-off won’t be afraid to use and put a spotlight on major antagonists via Jimmy’s coverage. Likewise, it also supports comments made by James Gunn himself that there are big plans in the works for Grodd, one of his favorite characters in the new DCU.
After all, Grodd has already appeared in the DCU thanks to 2024’s animated Creature Commandos series, briefly shown during a dark vision of the future from the Amazonian sorceress Circe, one that showed Grodd standing in the chaos among countless fallen heroes.
While his cameo was just a few mere seconds, it revealed something critical: Gorillia Grodd likely has similar ambitions to his comicbook counterpart, having plans large enough to potentially threaten the entire DCU overall.
Between his psychic powers and genius-level intellect, Grodd is exactly the type of villain who could be used to help build toward a major crossover event. Keeping that in mind, DC Crime can start that buildup by revealing the beginnings of Grodd’s plans via Jimmy’s coverage and investigations.
James Gunn has already said the DCU’s first big bad won’t be Darkseid, thereby opening the door to someone more unexpected.
With the right execution, Gorilla Grodd easily fit the bill, and could even mirror how the MCU’s Thanos was introduced with early brief appearances that gradually built overtime (including James Gunn’s first Guardians of the Galaxy movie). The idea of Gorilla Grodd becoming “Gods and Monsters” central culminating threat is not only plausible, it’s incredibly exciting.
Who Else Will Likely Star In DC Crime?
A Jimmy Olsen-led series likely means more Daily Planet representation overall. While the rest of the show’s cast has yet to be confirmed, the most likely supporting cast includes the likes of Perry White, Steve Lombard, and Cat Grant, all of whom could provide excellent support to Jimmy (just like they did in 2025’s Superman).
Cameos from David Corenswet’s Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane also feel extremely likely. After all, they’re Jimmy’s closest friends and connections.
The potential mockumentary structure potentially makes their appearances easier via quick interviews and/or talking heads, B-roll, or even Superman arriving to save the day when Jimmy undoubtedly finds himself in danger investigating supervillains like Grodd.
It’s also the perfect environment to plant seeds for Grodd’s rise to power in the DCU. DC Crime series could show Jimmy Olsen and The Daily Planet uncovering Grodd’s influence as it spreads across cities, governments, or hidden scientific groups via his impressive mind-control abilities.
DC Crime Can Be Something Special, While Setting Up the DCU’s Big Bad
There’s something wonderful about Jimmy Olsen becoming a key piece of connective tissue for the DCU. After all, he’s just a guy with a camera who’s often in the wrong place and wrong time, not a metahuman with extraordinary powers.
That’s exactly what makes DC Crime feel so promising, and when the villain in question is someone as powerful as Gorilla Grodd, the stakes already feel like they’ll be quite high.
If the DCU wants a villain who can embody both the “Monsters” and “Gods” halves of Gods and Monsters, Grodd could be the perfect candidate given his status as a gorilla and the impressive power he wields.
DC Crime could certainly give James Gunn the runway to slowly build Grodd into the DCU’s Thanos equivalent as a big bad (without fully copying Marvel’s trajectory like we’d likely see with the far more similar Darkseid).
DC Studios has not yet announced a release date for HBO Max’s DC Crime.
- Release Date
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July 11, 2025
- Runtime
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130 minutes
- Producers
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Peter Safran
