There is a moment when a studio stops looking ambitious and starts looking desperate. For the DCU, that moment may involve Jimmy Olsen, Gorilla Grodd, a phone camera, and a musical number nobody asked for.
The upcoming Grodd-focused series appears to be leaning into mockumentary comedy, strange historical reenactments, courtroom-style storytelling, and a version of the character that looks less like a terrifying psychic super-gorilla and more like a live-action mascot from a rejected streaming pilot. Maybe the final show will surprise us. Stranger things have happened.
But based on what has been shown, this feels like James Gunn’s DCU throwing another handful of glitter into the air and hoping nobody notices the machinery falling apart behind it.
The DCU’s strangest priority
We understand the appeal of a project like this. Gorilla Grodd is an absurd character. Jimmy Olsen has always been the weirder corner of Superman’s supporting cast. Put them together in a low-budget comedy, add some fake interviews and musical bits, and there is technically a premise.
The problem is timing.
This is arriving while DC is still trying to convince audiences that its new cinematic universe has a direction. Superman has to establish the foundation. Supergirl has to prove the audience will follow these characters into other corners of the brand. Lanterns has to show that DC can do serious genre television without turning every scene into a lecture. Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the slate still need to become actual movies instead of names on a presentation graphic.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, we are getting Jimmy Olsen and Gorilla Grodd singing together.
That is a difficult sell when fans are still waiting for the basic promise of a connected DC universe to materialize.
Funny is not the same as entertaining
James Gunn clearly understands comedy. He also understands that comic-book characters can survive being ridiculous. The issue is that Gunn’s version of “ridiculous” often seems to begin and end with everyone on screen acknowledging how ridiculous the material is.
A gorilla in a suit can be funny. A fake documentary about Grodd’s life could be funny. Even a musical number could work if it came from characters with a reason to be singing and a story that had earned the moment.
What we are seeing instead looks like a production daring the audience to complain. The joke becomes, “Can you believe DC is actually doing this?” Then the production treats that disbelief as proof that the joke landed.
That kind of humor works in a short clip. It gets exhausting when it becomes the studio’s entire personality.
There is a difference between a story that is intentionally strange and a story that seems to believe strangeness automatically equals originality.
The “everything is content” problem
The footage also reflects a larger problem with modern franchise filmmaking: every character is being treated as potential content before anyone asks whether audiences actually want to spend time with them.
Gorilla Grodd can be a major villain. He can be a terrifying telepathic threat. He can be a tragic figure, a political manipulator, or a genuinely weird science-fiction antagonist. But a Grodd comedy series needs more than recognition. It needs a reason to exist beyond the fact that the character is available.
That is where the Fortnite-skin criticism starts to feel uncomfortably accurate. The modern superhero machine keeps breaking characters into marketable pieces: a cameo here, a spinoff there, a streaming special, a collectible, a meme, and eventually a story.
The audience is expected to be grateful for the volume.
But volume is not world-building. Announcing more projects does not create excitement if the projects do not feel connected to a compelling creative vision.
The DCU cannot live on irony
The most revealing part of the Grodd footage may be the confidence behind it. Everyone seems completely committed to the bit. The characters are singing, the extras are applauding, and the production appears to be congratulating itself for being so boldly unserious.
That enthusiasm is not the issue. The issue is that nobody appears to be asking whether the joke is good.
This is how expensive entertainment becomes trapped inside its own approval system. The people making the show think the premise is hilarious. The online supporters immediately declare it genius. Anyone who dislikes it is accused of not understanding the joke. Then the audience is left staring at a finished product wondering why nobody applied the brakes.
A little self-awareness can make a superhero story sharper. Too much self-awareness turns the whole thing into a nervous breakdown with a budget.
Meanwhile, Batman is still waiting
The contrast with Matt Reeves’ Batman projects is impossible to ignore. The Batman and The Penguin gave audiences something that felt controlled, atmospheric, and confident. Those projects did not need to constantly announce how strange or subversive they were. They simply built a world and trusted the material.
That is why Reeves’ continued involvement matters more than another round of vague insider chatter about executive extensions. A real announcement about a filmmaker with a proven body of work carries more weight than rumors being recycled until they resemble strategy.
DC needs that kind of stability. It needs stories that can stand on their own before they are asked to carry a dozen future projects.
Instead, the current slate often feels like a collection of pitches competing for attention. Superman, Supergirl, Lanterns, Clayface, Batman, Wonder Woman, and now a Grodd comedy are all fighting to define what the DCU is supposed to be.
If everything is the priority, nothing is.
Give us a reason to care
There is still a chance the Grodd series works. The final version could have a stronger concept than the early footage suggests. The comedy could find its rhythm. The bizarre tone could become charming instead of irritating.
But fans are allowed to look at these images and ask why this is happening now.
DC does not need another project that mistakes chaos for confidence. It needs a few genuine wins. It needs characters audiences want to follow, stories that do not feel embarrassed by sincerity, and a creative plan that extends beyond the next viral clip.
We have seen this pattern before: a studio reaches for something “different,” the marketing insists that the weirdness is the point, and everyone discovers too late that the weirdness was all there was.
So yes, maybe Gorilla Grodd will be hilarious. Maybe Jimmy Olsen will become the unlikely hero of the new DCU.
For the moment, though, this looks less like a bold experiment and more like a warning flare.
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