The DCU’s Wild New Villain Set Photo Reveal Fixes A Decades-Long Superhero Problem

Published Sep 10, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT

Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.

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The DC Universe's surreal new set photo reveals look oddly perfect when it comes to fixing a long-term issue and challenge the superhero genre has had to face, especially within its cinematic universes. While DC and Marvel are both best known for their heroes, superhero worlds would be nothing without good villains for them to go up against, as the franchises have proved again and again over the years.

For DC, figures like the Joker and Lex Luthor prove this point especially well, as these comic icons are known almost as well as their heroic counterparts, and often prove more intriguing to fans in terms of their history, origin stories, and what motivates them to do terrible things that often risk countless lives along the way - with the success of the 2019 Joker movie exemplifying the interest in these kinds of characters.

That said, it's easy for depictions of these supervillains to fall into ruts and conventional tropes - especially when it comes to adapting them into cinematic universes, where there is oftentimes even less opportunity to delve into their stories. Interestingly enough, the DCU's newest set photos suggest the franchise is very much looking to avoid this issue with its own approach to its villainous characters.

The DC Universe's Surprising Gorilla Grodd Set Photos Show The Franchise Isn't Afraid To Go Into Unconventional Territory With Its Villains

While the teased promise of a DCU show featuring Jimmy Olsen following his introduction in Superman and Gorilla Grodd following his teased arrival in Creature Commandos season 1 already seemed wild, few could have predicted the early set photos of the upcoming The People Vs Gorilla Grodd would go quite as all in as they do, showing Gorilla Grodd in what appears to be his prior university experience, including him as part of an a cappella band, and him in a graduation gown.

Naturally, these set photos have generated quite the response from viewers, particularly since they've come out as we're halfway through the release of the substantially more grounded and gritty Lanterns season 1, too, and have a decidedly different tone to this current DCU show.

With that said, though, this unusual move is one that does seem to bode well. Historically, DC's live-action cinematic movie worlds have largely focused on antagonists in more serious lights, without being able to show them as characters with their own independent hopes, dreams, and extensive history - whereas this sequence clearly highlights a willingness if not eagerness to do the opposite in a striking way.

The DCU's Gorilla Grodd Set Photo Suggests A Surprisingly Three-Dimensional Look At The Character Is Impending

Though of course the sequence of Grodd's university experience does seem as though it could be a short montage used for its natural comedic premise - and may well be an imaginary sequence that doesn't reflect Grodd's actual life in the DCU timeline when shown in The People Vs Gorilla Grodd - this does still hold surprising weight in terms of how it suggests the DCU will look at the often overlooked character.

Any look at Gorilla Grodd's past that posits he could have lived a normal life amongst humanity complete with hobbies like a cappella groups invites the audience to consider that the character is not so different from them, and displays them in a way that helps ensure the giant talking super-smart gorilla is given a depiction that focuses on the idea that there's much more to the figure than this larger-than-life side to them.

As such, while these DCU set photos have proved to illicit a range of very different responses from audiences, this is arguably because it's such a contrast with how we're used to superhero villains being depicted - which means it seems all the more possibly fruitful for the DC Universe to take this approach.