Jimmy Olsen is now JENNY Olsen in Man of Steel?

[Tandaemonium]

Chicks, man.

[listenuscrewheads]

I know you are just trying to be funny, but using the term "chick" and labeling the idea of a man becoming a woman as "crap that happens" makes me slightly uncomfortable as a woman myself. Besides, Jimmy isn't becoming Jenny in the film. If the speculation is true, Jimmy IS Jenny.

To be fair, if a man is turned into a woman against his will, that should be labeled as 'crap', I think that is what the poster meant.

[stk]

Don't care. If it's true, I can live with it.

[listenuscrewheads]

Don't care. If it's true, I can live with it.

This is all a massive bluff of cosmic proportions. haha

[King Krypton]

Jimmy Olsen is an expendable character. Always has been, always will be. Of the "core" characters, he's the one you can omit or kill off without losing anything whatsoever. If they've turned the character into a woman for this film, it does nothing to harm the mythos at all.

Lest we forget, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes' buddy and cohort? Changed to Joan Watson and played by Lucy Liu, and that seems to be working out just fine for Elementary. Based on that alone -- and Watson is a far more important character than Jimmy Olsen could ever dream of being -- I don't see where there's one single, solitary problem with a Jenny Olsen in one of many incarnations of Superman.

[killercroc]

I sincerely doubt the people who sit on those cinema seats to make the money will care. If the movie is good, it's good. Regardless of the gender swap. Won't bother me. Superman and Zod are the ones I'm interested in.

[listenuscrewheads]

Jimmy Olsen is an expendable character. Always has been, always will be. Of the "core" characters, he's the one you can omit or kill off without losing anything whatsoever. If they've turned the character into a woman for this film, it does nothing to harm the mythos at all.

Lest we forget, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes' buddy and cohort? Changed to Joan Watson and played by Lucy Liu, and that seems to be working out just fine for Elementary. Based on that alone -- and Watson is a far more important character than Jimmy Olsen could ever dream of being -- I don't see where there's one single, solitary problem with a Jenny Olsen in one of many incarnations of Superman.

I bet this character is not even that relevant to the film, never mind being Superman's 'best friend'.

It's funny how they just made Lois Lane a redhead as well.

[Tandaemonium]

Jimmy Olsen is an expendable character. Always has been, always will be. Of the "core" characters, he's the one you can omit or kill off without losing anything whatsoever. If they've turned the character into a woman for this film, it does nothing to harm the mythos at all.

Lest we forget, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes' buddy and cohort? Changed to Joan Watson and played by Lucy Liu, and that seems to be working out just fine for Elementary. Based on that alone -- and Watson is a far more important character than Jimmy Olsen could ever dream of being -- I don't see where there's one single, solitary problem with a Jenny Olsen in one of many incarnations of Superman.

Oh yeah, the dumbed-down for American audiences reinterpretation. Yeah, I'm okay with Elementary as long as I pretend that it has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes and watch it like the above-average detective procedural that it is. Same goes for Man Of Steel, though it has nothing to do with Jimmy Olsen's sex - I'll watch and enjoy it for its above-averageness.

[King Krypton]

I bet this character is not even that relevant to the film, never mind being Superman's 'best friend'.

It's funny how they just made Lois Lane a redhead as well.

Lois has had red/auburn hair in the past. It's nothing new, and again is a "change" that impacts nothing.

[listenuscrewheads]

I would not have minded seeing Lucy Lui cast as Lois Lane. haha

[listenuscrewheads]

Lois has had red/auburn hair in the past. It's nothing new, and again is a "change" that impacts nothing.

Superman's heat vision does not work on things coloured red, so no more free haircuts for Lois.

but, aye, just a lil coincidence i was commenting on, lois being a red head and ginger jimmy becoming a woman. ginger genes are making a comeback. freckles are fightin back.

[Clark/Kent/Is/Superman]

please don't do this...please don't do this...please don't do this...

[Kurosawa]

I know you are just trying to be funny, but using the term "chick" and labeling the idea of a man becoming a woman as "crap that happens" makes me slightly uncomfortable as a woman myself. Besides, Jimmy isn't becoming Jenny in the film. If the speculation is true, Jimmy IS Jenny.

Gawd, you are ants at a picnic.

[King Krypton]

Something else I wanted to say regarding gender-switching supporting cast members:

I would be 100% fine with the cast of Superman being Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White, Jenny Olsen, and Alexander "Lex" Luthor.

I would be 100% fine with the cast being Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Paris White, Jimmy Olsen, and Alexander "Lex" Luthor. (Fun fact: Paris was Perry's original name in the development scripts for the radio show. So a female version of the character by that name wouldn't be a big stretch.)

I would be 100% fine with the cast being Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and Alexandra "Lex" Luthor. (In fact, I think a lot of fun could be had with turning the Superman/Luthor rivalry into a gender-flipped version of the Hannibal Lecter/Clarice Starling dynamic.)

Point being? I think after 75 years, I'm ready and willing to see some new and very different takes on the Superman mythos. As long as the absolute essentials of the mythos stay intact (Krypton blows up, baby Kal-El comes to Earth and is raised by the Kents, Superman himself stays more or less as is), I say kick the doors down and let there be new interpretations, new perspectives, new visions...basically go nuts. We've got 75 years of the "classic" stuff already, and we can go back to it whenever we want. I'm ready for something new.

[stk]

Jimmy Olsen is an expendable character. Always has been, always will be. Of the "core" characters, he's the one you can omit or kill off without losing anything whatsoever.

I wouldn't go that far. Superman's Pal? I don't know. Maybe if you are only a fan of post-Crisis Superman, I could see you thinking Jimmy is expendable. I guess.

I think you can recast Jimmy as a woman and still be fine. But to remove the character completely, the mythology does lose something important.