Zack Snyder Reveals That Jesse Eisenberg Was Nearly Cast As Jimmy Olsen In Batman V Superman

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is proving to be a pretty divisive movie (though the majority of fans seem to love it), and new comments from Zack Snyder are sure to split opinions even more. The director has revealed that fan-favourite Superman supporting character Jimmy Olsen is indeed in the film, but the downside to that is that it’s just a one off appearance.

Why? Well, he was the photographer right at the start who gets shot after Lex Luthor’s mercenaries realize he’s there under the orders of the CIA.

“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?”

Of course, the character is never identified as Jimmy, so there’s always a chance he could be brought back down the line, right? Well, not exactly. It turns out that the upcoming Ultimate Edition of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will make his identity official. Interestingly, Snyder also reveals that Jimmy is the mystery character who Jesse Eisenberg initially auditioned for.

“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. 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.’”

Going down that route would have been a lot of fun, though Snyder arguably made the right choice by having Eisenberg play Lex instead. And as for Jimmy, it’s hard to say whether his role here is a waste of a great character or a cool way to include him in the DCEU rather than just leaving him on the shelf. We’re leaning towards the former, though.

What do you think? Would you liked to have seen Jimmy have a larger role in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice? Sound off below and let us know.