James Gunn Clarifies When THE PEOPLE VS. GORILLA GRODD Takes Place in the DCU Timeline
The DCU timeline just got a little clearer, although James Gunn says The People v. Gorilla Grodd will be bouncing around it quite a bit.
After Skyler Gisondo recently suggested that the upcoming DCU true-crime mockumentary The People v. Gorilla Grodd takes place before Man of Tomorrow, Gunn stepped in to clarify exactly where the series sits in DC Studios’ growing continuity.
Responding to a report on Threads, Gunn explained: "Overall in continuity, it's after MoT (and won't come out until then)."
So, the main events of The People v. Gorilla Grodd happen after Man of Tomorrow, and the show won’t be released until after the Superman sequel arrives.
That fits with how much of the DCU has unfolded so far, with new projects generally moving the larger story forward as they’re released. There are exceptions, including Clayface, which takes place before the events of Superman.
The People v. Gorilla Grodd also comes with its own timeline complication. Gunn added: "I mean it's a true crime series, so it jumps all over the place."
The mockumentary format gives the series room to dig into different periods of Gorilla Grodd’s life and potentially show corners of DCU history we haven’t seen before.
It could also explain some of the wild Gorilla Grodd material spotted during production, including scenes involving Grodd attending college and even singing a cappella. Those moments don’t necessarily tell us when the main story takes place. They could simply be flashbacks used as part of the show’s investigation.
The series follows Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen as the Daily Planet reporter investigates Gorilla Grodd’s 2021 conviction. Grodd was sent to Stryker’s Island Penitentiary after being convicted of murdering his father, the King of Gorilla City.
The concept remains one of the strangest and most unique ideas on the DCU Chapter One slate. Jimmy Olsen investigating a murderous super-intelligent gorilla through the lens of a true-crime documentary sounds exactly like the kind of crazy comic book swing that could make this universe a lot of fun.
The show comes from Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, the creators of Netflix’s hilarious true-crime mockumentary American Vandal. Jimmy Tatro plays Gorilla Grodd, reuniting with Perrault and Yacenda after appearing as the accused Dylan Maxwell in the first season of American Vandal. Tatro also recently appeared in the bloody opening sequence of Scream 7.
Gisondo previously talked about returning to Jimmy Olsen after working on A24’s Primetime, which stars Robert Pattinson, and how different these projects have been for him.
"It's quite a change-up," Gisondo said. "I actually went straight from – not straight, [after Primetime] the next thing was Focker-in-Law... which is just, tonally, a very different movie.
"Now being back doing Jimmy Olsen, and [The People v. Gorilla Grodd] is like a mockumentary, true crime thing, so it's very Lance [Oppenheim]-adjacent, and it is funny."
With the timeline question cleared up, we now know The People v. Gorilla Grodd belongs after Man of Tomorrow in the larger DCU story, even if the series itself will be hopping through different points in time.
