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Possible Jimmy Olsen Gender Swap in 'Man of Steel'

There are often changes when adapting comics but will Jimmy now be a 'she'?

We've seen many changes when comic books get adapted for the big screen. Sometimes it's race such as when Michael Clarke Duncan was cast as Kingpin in Daredevil. You could even point out a red-headed Amy Adams cast as the traditionally brunette Lois Lane in Man of Steel. Now it looks like Lois' hair color isn't the only change that we might see in the film.

Digital Spy caught the possibility that Jimmy Olsen could be seeing a gender change for the movie.

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Where this comes from is on IMDB, Rebecca Buller is listed as playing Jenny Olsen. It could be easy to dismiss this as simply the possibility that we'll see Jimmy's sister on screen but there is an absence of an actor listed as playing Jimmy. There is also a scene in the trailer where Perry White is running from destruction along with Buller.

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Watching the scene again, she's not carrying a camera around her neck but instead what appears to be an office badge of some sort. It's possible it could be a press badge. Why would Jimmy's sister be running from chaos with Perry unless she was either visiting the Daily Planet or working there.

Digital Spy also reports that Buller's role hasn't been confirmed by Warner Bros. and we know IMDB sometimes contains errors, especially in early production.

Does Jimmy Olsen's gender matter? It would add a possible different dynamic to being "Superman's Pal" and could also be competition for Lois. All we can do is wait to see what develops from this.

122 Comments

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J1ml33

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Edited By J1ml33

My Take is the Man of Steel is on Earth Two [hence all these Interesting new takes on beloved Superman Supporting cast members such as Perry and Jimmy . ] so everybody chill .

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ShadowMonkey

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Edited By ShadowMonkey

Being a Hollywood movie, I guess we should just be glad that the movie still takes place in Metropolis and Superman can still fly. At least I'm presuming that from the trailers I've seen. Has Michael Bay been involved? I heard a rumor that at the end of the credits Superman flies into space and finds the Teenage Mutant (or Alien) Ninja Turtles.

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StMichalofWilson

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Edited By StMichalofWilson

By the way, I'm just going to put this out there: Why Jenny Olsen when there can be a Chloe Sullivan in the movie?

I'm just saying...

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StMichalofWilson

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Edited By StMichalofWilson

@cmaprice said:

As long as we see the Giant Turtle (wo)Man version of Jimmy/Jenny, I'm good.

That is part of this film, right? Right?

LOL!

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Trevel8182

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Edited By Trevel8182

My problem with this is what happened to Nick Fury when they replaced him with Marcus Johnson because Samuel Jackson was Black Nick Fury in the Avengers and I love Jimmy Olsen so I hope this doesn't happen.

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Phaedrusgr

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Edited By Phaedrusgr

@SeanFoster: And suddenly, the watch that Superman gave to Jimmy - Jenny Olsen transforms into an instrument - alarm of passion and lust...

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BR_Havoc

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Edited By BR_Havoc

This seems like a stupid change for change sake. Then again it could all be just to get some press and they have Jimmy in there as well as Jenny like they are twins or something.

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KindleClay

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Edited By KindleClay

Neat! Jimmy Olsen as a woman would be great. I think he and superman could have an affair after all Grace Randolph's Supurbia has a really hot Gay thing going on, why not Superman. Lois and Jimmy could fight over Superman! So cool and Superman wouldn't even have to know that 'She' is Jimmy Olsen!

Until after that night in bed!

Yep... DC sure wouldn't have a problem with this!

Sarcasm?

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SUNMAN

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Edited By SUNMAN

This is no big deal. If the actress puts on a good performance I'm fine with it. As long as we get a good performance out of the actor or actress race and gender does not matter. And I've only found that some diehard message board fans really care about it.

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BatteredArmor

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Edited By BatteredArmor

The question isn't whether Jimmy's gender matters the question is does Jimmy matter

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Inverno

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Edited By Inverno

Ummm... WHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?

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cmaprice

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Edited By cmaprice

As long as we see the Giant Turtle (wo)Man version of Jimmy/Jenny, I'm good.
 
That is part of this film, right? Right?

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Press Oblivion

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Edited By Press Oblivion

What's Buller?

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Gambit1024

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Edited By Gambit1024

Huh. Maybe this'll make the character interesting.

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akawiccan

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Edited By akawiccan

... since my childhood Jimmy is my favorite character. Why would they change his gender? He's Supermans Pal, his buddy - I'm sorry but I don't see a girl in that place. Hopefully that isn't true!

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CykoJimmY

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Edited By CykoJimmY

NOOOOO FUCK NO HELL NO THAT ALONE WONT MAKE ME WATCH THIS GODDAMN MOVIE NOOO

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SeanFoster

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Edited By SeanFoster

Superman's Friend with Benefits!

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Alchemax_7

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Edited By Alchemax_7

I'm conflicted by this. It's good to have another female character that could possibly compete for Clark's attention and could changed the dynamic of being "Superman's Pal" Though if it is in fact not Jimmy Olsen's sibling or relative and indeed fact a sex-changed Jimmy I believe it could put general movie goers off a bit with the change. If they saw the original films or even Superman Returns, they would know Jimmy is a male but when going to see MOS they couldn't possibly know or like what's going on. Personally if the rumours are true, I'm open minded to see how it would play out, I like changes that shake up the atmosphere of the movie, could turn out for the best or the worst but it's not released yet and I still want to see it as much as I did before and I'm in fact even more excited now than I was before.

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MyComicStoreDotNET

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I don't particularly care about what Olsen's gender is in the movie as long as the personality is largely un-altered.

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reignmaker

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Edited By reignmaker

My first reaction was an eye roll, but if there's quality acting to go with a quality story it won't matter.

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vance_astro

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Edited By vance_astro  Moderator

Is it me or do only Marvel and DC do this? Gender Swaps in Race Changes don't seem to serve a purpose. Only thing I can think of is that these companies need to appear diverse outside of comics because general movie goers don't know their history. They need to PRETEND they have such a diverse roster although they don't give blacks, or females the proper face time in comics.

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RedQueen

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Edited By RedQueen

Interesting. I don't really see a viable reason why they would need to change Jimmy's gender, unless they were going for some kind of love triangle thing :p

Personally, I don't think it matters. I just don't see a reason why they would. Either way, it's certainly interesting.