Jesse Eisenberg Was Originally Up For This Role In ‘Batman v Superman’

This article contains major spoilers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

We’ve known for a while now that Jesse Eisenberg originally auditioned to play another character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but now Entertainment Weekly has revealed that the actor was up for the role of Jimmy Olsen in the movie. While Eisenberg obviously didn’t end up playing him, the character did indeed make it into the final cut of the movie and he even shared a couple of scenes with Lois Lane.

However, he also died right in the beginning of the movie, as he was the photographer who was played by Michael Cassidy. Speaking with the magazine, director Zack Snyder explained the reasoning behind his decision to kill off the character:

“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?”

Snyder then went on to say that the character will have a bit more screentime in the Ultimate Edition of the movie, where he will actually reveal his identity to Lois early on during their meeting:

“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.”

As for why Snyder wanted an actor like Eisenberg in the small role, it appears that the director wanted to add another shock factor in the movie by killing off a character who would be played by a famous actor:

“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.’”

Before Eisenberg landed the role of Luthor, many fans wanted to see Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston in the part, but was he ever even considered? Here’s what Snyder told EW about that:

“We talked about the usual suspects that you would imagine; any actor who has been bald, probably,. Bryan Cranston would have been great, right? And by the way, he’s an amazing actor. Can you imagine how different the movie would be?”

What do you guys think? Did you like Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or would you have preferred to see someone like Cranston in the role? Sound-off your thoughts in the comment section below.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Michael Bezanidis

Michael Bezanidis

Michael is the Managing Editor of Heroic Hollywood. When he's not playing video games, he's usually writing about film and television.