Warning: There is a BIG spoiler here so if you haven’t seen ‘Batman V Superman’ yet, you may want to click on to the next article!
If you stuck around through the credits of ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’, you may have glimpsed a surprising credit: actor Michael Cassidy played Jimmy Olsen. You don’t remember Jimmy, Superman’s best pal from the comics, being in the film? Why he had lines and everything!
It turns out that during Lois’ trip to Africa to interview a war criminal, Lois’ cameraman, who is later revealed to be a CIA plant and is then executed, was none other than the famous comic book photographer. He isn’t named, so it’s no surprise that most viewers didn’t pick up that this was who the character was supposed to be.
Director Zack Snyder defended the choice to kill off such an important character by saying:
“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?”
Snyder does reassure fans that Cassidy’s cameo will be better clarified in the R-rated director’s cut where they will get to see Jimmy introduce himself to Lois:
“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.”
There had previously been speculation that Scoot McNairy would be playing Jimmy, but that turned out not to be the case. There had also been talk that the Daily Planet employee Jenny, played by Rebecca Buller, was a female substitute for Jimmy. But now we know that Jimmy was included, although not especially in the best role. (Then again, depending on your take on the movie, maybe Jimmy/Cassidy was better off.)
Originally, Snyder wanted to cast a major actor for the role and kill him off for the shock factor and had Jesse Eisenberg in mind. After meeting Eisenberg, he changed his mind and cast him as Lex Luthor instead (though some now feel Eisenberg would have been better off enduring Olsen’s fate).
Mehcad Brooks currently plays a more suave version of JAMES Olsen on CBS’ ‘Supergirl’.
What do you think? Was this a fun nod to the comics? Or do you find it disrespectful to kill off such a long-running character without so much as identifying him by name? Did you ID the character in the film?
‘Batman V Superman’ directed by Snyder, starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, and Jesse Eisenberg is playing in theaters now.
Source: Cinema Blend
