Last year, an unverified report claiming that Superman spin-off shows focusing on Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) were being considered did the rounds online. We'd soon get confirmation that the Olsen series would actually take the form of a crime anthology show, with the Daily Planet reporter investigating various DC Comics supervillains.
The trades later reported that this project was officially moving forward under the title "DC Crime" (this has since been debunked by DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn), with American Vandal co-creators Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda on board to write, executive produce and showrun the series, and Gisondo set to reprise his Superman role as Clark Kent's pal.
Now, a listing on the WGA website reveals that the show will actually be titled American Villain
. This is believed to be the final title, but we obviously won't know for sure until it's officially announced.
"The concept centers on Olsen, as well as other Daily Planet reporters (minus Lois Lane and Clark Kent), who tackle cases involving super-powered villains," and Variety's report confirmed that the first season will indeed focus on Gorilla Grodd.
This will mark Grodd's live-action DCU debut, but the character did briefly appear in the Creature Commandos animated series. Though he has also tangled with Superman on a number of occasions, Grodd is generally considered a Flash villain, which might indicate that this show will serve as an introduction to several other DC Comics metahuman characters.
DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran will executive produce. Galen Vaisman is overseeing for DC.
During a recent interview with DC Direct, co-showrunner Dan Perrault said that the series falls under the "crime mystery comedy" genre.
"Well, it's comfortable territory for Tony Yacenda and I. We've worked in this crime mystery comedy for a very long time... There's definitely tools from that toolkit that we can apply here that I don't think has been seen in the superhero genre thus far."
Gisondo will also return for Man of Tomorrow, along with the rest of the Daily Planet crew, but we wouldn't count on David Corenswet (Clark Kent/the Man of Steel) or Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane) dropping by for this series. Then again, Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor did make a cameo in season 2 of Peacemaker, who you really never know.