DC Studios' universe is expanding rapidly. The franchise recently added a new project to its already prolific slate: A Jimmy Olsen TV series—at the time called DC Crime. The series will star Skyler Gisondo as Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, as he, alongside the Daily Planet crew (minus Lois Lane and Clark Kent), investigates different villains in the DCU.
Jimmy Olsen's standalone vehicle was met with both excitement and curiosity from fans. Being a fictional true-crime-style docuseries developed by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, creators of Netflix's American Vandal, the show is shaping up to be a unique comic book adaptation. Now, an interesting development has happened, as James Gunn has revealed the show's reported title is not accurate.
Repliying on Threads to a post from Deadline reporting on the show, the director revealed that a series named DC Crime has never existed:
"Just FYI, there has never been a project titled "DC Crime" in development, not even as a working title. I don't know where that came from, but it's weird." To prevent confusion, the director followed up that response stating the report on the show itself isn't false, "And no, that doesn't mean all of the rest of the story is false."
So, the series itself is real, but it's not titled DC Crime. This was corroborated when a user on Threads asked Gunn if the show itself was fake, or just the title. The director simply replied: "Title."
Responding to another fan, the Superman director revealed that the reason he cleared this up was because he'd had people in real life mention DC Crime to him, which confused him: "The story is from five days ago, and I've had a few people come up to me IRL and say, "I can't wait for DC Crime!" I was confused, to say the least!"
The series' reported structure presents an interesting storytelling opportunity for DC Studios. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the show will be a documentary-style series focused on Jimmy Olsen investigating different villains from across the DC Universe. The show's first season is expected to focus on The Flash baddie Gorilla Grodd.
With it exploring different villains from the DC Universe, the series can quickly increase the villain population of the DCU without the need for different multi-million-dollar superhero films to establish them over the course of many years. That isn't to say there's anything bad about slow growth in a franchise. It's just a curious strategy that can allow DC Studios to populate its franchise in a relatively swift manner. This is, of course, depends on how successful the series turns out to be once it releases.
Though Jimmy Olsen's show does not yet have a release date, the character will probably return in Man of Tomorrow. The film arrives in theaters on July 9, 2027.
What do you think about the Jimmy Olsen series not being DC Crime? What would you like it to be called? Drop your thoughts in the comments!