Warning: Spoilers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to follow…
Jimmy Olsen may have been absent from Man of Steel, but the character does make an appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, although he’s never identified by name, he’s not played by Scoot McNairy, and he doesn’t last very long.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, director Zack Snyder has confirmed that the photographer-cum-CIA Agent who accompanies Lois Lane to Africa and is Superman’s pal.
“We just did it as this little aside because we had been tracking where we thought the movies were gonna go, and we don’t have room for Jimmy Olsen in our big pantheon of characters, but we can have fun with him, right?”
SEE ALSO: Read our reviews of Batman v Superman here and here
Snyder then confirmed that Olsen (played by Smallville and The O.C.’s Michael Cassidy) will identify himself in the Ultimate Edition cut: “He comes up to her and he goes, ‘Lois Lane, I’m Jimmy Olsen, photographer, obviously … You know, I’ve been assigned to you for this mission.’ But it turns out that Jimmy Olsen is a spook for the CIA.”
He also went on to reveal that his original plan was to cast Jesse Eisenberg in the role of Jimmy Olsen: “I thought, if it were Jesse Eisenberg and he got out and he goes, ‘I’m Jimmy Olsen,’ you’d be like, oh my God, we’re gonna have Jimmy Olsen in the whole movie, right? And then if he got shot, you’d just be like, ‘What!? You can’t do that.’”
SEE ALSO: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition Blu-ray artwork and release date revealed
Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our Batman v Superman coverage here
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is out now and sees Zack Snyder directing a cast that includes returning Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill (Superman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White), Harry Lennix (General Swanwick), Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent) and Christina Wren (Carrie Farris) alongside Ben Affleck (Argo) as Batman, Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious 6) as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) as Aquaman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as The Flash, Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me) as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons (The Borgias) as Alfred Pennyworth, Holly Hunter (The Piano) as Senator Finch, Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine) as Mercy Graves, Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead) as Martha Wayne, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) as Thomas Wayne, Scoot McNairy (Argo) as Wallace Keefe and Callan Mulvey (300: Rise of an Empire) as Anatoli Knyazev.
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Originally published March 26, 2016. Updated November 29, 2022.
