One of the recurring criticisms made of Zack Snyder’s time at the helm of the DCU was that he had a fundamental misunderstanding of several important characters. Whether you agree or disagree, there’s no denying it was a claim levied at the filmmaker every time a new comic book adaptation released, with Jimmy Olsen one of the prime candidates.
Comic book history has placed the intrepid Daily Planet reporter as a staunch friend and fierce ally of Clark Kent, but in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice he was revealed to be an undercover government agent tasked to infiltrate a shady arms operation, leading to the typically bright and sunny Olsen taking a bullet straight to the head in the first act of the movie.
Needless to say, there were plenty of purists who were left aghast by such an integral figure in the Man of Steel’s mythos being done so dirty, but James Gunn has confirmed that we’ll be meeting a brand new version of the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed staffer in Superman: Legacy.
The Guardians of the Galaxy director has repeatedly underlined that he’s planning to be faithful to the lore when his reboot hits theaters in the summer of 2025, so we shouldn’t be expecting any major twists and turns in a Snyder-like vein. That won’t stop the two from being pitted against each other, though, but it’s definitely worth noting that we’re closing in on 40 years since Olsen was genuinely given his due as part of a live-action Superman movie, so it’s been a long time coming.