After Superman became one of the biggest smashes of the summer, we now know when we’re going to see some of the Daily Planet gang next.
On Monday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda will serve as writers, executive producers, and showrunners on a TV spinoff centered around Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen. Perrault and Yacenda are known for their work on the Netflix cult-classic American Vandal, as well as Paramount+’s Players. DC Studios’ James Gunn and Peter Safran will executive produce, with Galen Vaisman overseeing for DC.
The series, which would be titled DC Crime, will reportedly be a true-crime docuseries centered around Olsen, and other Daily Planet reporters (minus Lois Lane and Clark Kent), who tackle cases involving super-powered villains. Just based on who we already met in Superman, this could include Daily Planet boss Perry White (Wendell Pierce), as well as reporters Cat Grant (Mikaela Hoover), Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett), and Ron Troupe (Christopher McDonald). The first season will see them investigating something tied to Gorilla Grodd, a beloved villain of The Flash and the leader of a hyper-intelligent secret society of apes in Gorilla City.
The Jimmy-centric show does not currently have a release date, but it has been rumored to be in development for several months now. Immediately following the theatrical debut of Superman, reports indicated that TV spinoffs around both Jimmy and Edi Gathegi’s Michael Holt / Mister Terrific were in development.
What a perfect combo!
It was funny, at the time, seeing how the news of a potential Jimmy Olsen spinoff was received by fans. Given how the character has been sporadically underutilized in modern DC movies and TV shows, many really “met” him and his unique characterization for the first time in Superman, which had a subplot of involving him and Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio). On paper, his corner of things might not be the first thing people would expect to see spun off from Superman, especially with the movie introducing multiple costumed superheroes. But there is plenty of glorious, bizarre comic precedent for it.
Following the success of Jack Larson’s portrayal on the Adventures of Superman TV series, Jimmy quickly got his own solo comic in 1954, titled Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. I can not overstate just how unhinged that comic got, basically subjecting Jimmy to a laundry list of larger-than-life concepts or characters from the larger DCU. One issue, he would travel back in time and accidentally create Beatlemania. The next, he would unintentionally be turned into a gigantic turtle-themed kaiju. The comic was absurdly successful, at one point selling over
half a million copies. And by the 1970s, Jack Kirby took on the title, basically turning it into a backdoor pilot for Darkseid and all things Fourth World.
With that knowledge, I’ve always been excited by the idea of a Jimmy spinoff, and that hype only grew once I saw Gisondo embody the character in such a goofy and glorious way. The fact that we’re now getting that with the American Vandal team, who have precedent for that kind of unique quirky energy, is a delight. The fact that it could be in a storyline involving Gorilla Grodd is just icing on the cake, especially because Jimmy has a long history of interacting with DC’s gorillas.
(featured image: DC Studios)
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