HBO’s CEO Just Revealed There Are No New DC Shows in the Works Right Now

Building a shared television universe requires a steady pipeline of new projects to keep momentum going, something Marvel proved with its relentless Disney+ rollout strategy over the past several years. DC’s approach at HBO has looked noticeably different by comparison, moving at a far more deliberate pace since James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the franchise.

That pacing question came up directly in a new interview with HBO’s top executive, who addressed head-on just how much DC content is actually being developed for the platform right now. The answer wasn’t exactly what fans hoping for a rapid expansion of the DC Universe might have wanted to hear.

HBO CEO Casey Bloys confirmed to Deadline that there are currently no new DCU projects in active development at the network. “No, not right now, obviously you’ve got Gorilla Grodd, which I’m very happy about, doing something different, and I think it’s a really fun idea. They just started shooting,” Bloys said, pointing to the one DC project that does have cameras rolling.

That Gorilla Grodd project, officially titled ‘The People v. Gorilla Grodd,’ takes a genuinely unusual approach for the franchise. The eight-episode HBO Max series is being developed as an in-universe true-crime documentary, created by Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, the duo behind Netflix’s cult hit ‘American Vandal.’

The show follows Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen, played by Skyler Gisondo reprising his role from James Gunn’s ‘Superman,’ as he revisits the infamous murder trial of Gorilla Grodd, a hyper-intelligent ape convicted of killing his father, King Grodd, in a bid to seize control of Gorilla City. Jimmy Tatro has been cast as the voice of Grodd himself, marking the character’s first major live-action appearance since his run across The CW’s Arrowverse shows.

Describing their vision for the project, showrunners Yacenda and Perrault said they were excited by the challenge of creating a series that “feels less like an entry into the DCU and more like an artifact from it,” framing the show as a Daily Planet original documentary made specifically for the fictional citizens of Metropolis rather than a conventional superhero property.

Bloys’ comments track with statements he’s made previously about HBO’s overall approach to greenlighting DC content. In an earlier interview with Variety, he explained that DC projects are evaluated individually rather than pulled from some predetermined master plan, saying decisions come down to whether a script is genuinely good and creatively interesting rather than filling a scheduling gap.

That philosophy has resulted in a noticeably different pace than Marvel’s Disney+ strategy, where new series have arrived in a near-constant stream. HBO’s current DC television slate includes the upcoming ‘Lanterns’ series starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, along with ‘Clayface,’ while other previously discussed projects like a Mr. Terrific series have moved more slowly through development.

With Bloys explicitly confirming no additional DCU shows are currently being developed beyond the Gorilla Grodd project, fans hoping for a rapid expansion of DC’s television presence may need to adjust their expectations for the pace of new announcements. Whether that deliberate, script-first approach ultimately produces stronger individual shows remains to be seen, but for now, HBO’s DC slate is staying notably lean.

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