The past week has been rife with casting revelations for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. On Tuesday, DC Comics confirmed that Tao Okamoto is playing Lex Luthor’s right-hand woman Mercy Graves. This was followed by reports of Callan Mulvey and Jena Malone and playing Anatoli Knyazev (a.k.a. KGBeast) and Barbara Gordon (a.k.a. Batgirl/Oracle), respectively. Now the latest bit of information may have identified the mysterious role that Halt and Catch Fire star Scoot McNairy has been attached to: Jimmy Olsen.
It was rumored last year that McNairy would be playing a different version of the Daily Planet’s photographer, and today Heroic Hollywood said that their sources have told them the same thing. According to the article, this version of Jimmy was in Metropolis during the battle between Superman and Zod, and his legs were crushed by falling rubble. That would explain the photos leaked last year of McNairy on set wearing green screen socks, hinting that we would see some kind of visual effects around his legs. McNairy was briefly seen in the latest Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer when Superman walks into the Senate committee room where he is grilled about Man of Steel’s destructive events.
Speculation surrounding McNairy's role has been rampant since he was announced, and guesses about his character have included the Kryptonite-powerd supervillain Metallo or Superman’s fellow Justice Leaguer The Flash, although the latter role has since been filled by Ezra Miller. So far the only clues the actor has provided about his role is that it’s a character he’s never played before and it was something he had to wrap his head around emotionally. If this report is true, McNairy will be the second recent live-action adaptation of Jimmy Olsen, the first being Mehcad Brooks’ Jimmy in the CBS series Supergirl.
Having McNairy playing Jimmy Olsen would would be an unusual twist, given that Jimmy is typically younger than his buddy Clark Kent, whereas McNairy is five years older than Henry Cavill. However, as we’ve seen in various comic book projects in recent years, comic book continuity isn’t always followed to the letter, and if director Zack Snyder and the rest of the creative team found a unique way to make their version of Jimmy fit into this expansive cinematic universe, then they won’t let something like age or lack of red hair affect who they cast. Again though, this hasn’t been confirmed, so we’ll have to wait for more evidence to verify this claim.
Whether it’s Jimmy Olsen or someone else, we’ll learn the identity of Scoot McNairy’s character when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25, 2016.
