This funny fan theory about Superman’s Jimmy Olsen makes perfect sense

James Gunn’s “Superman” is absolutely packed with characters, and the Daily Planet newsroom is no different. Metropolis’ Rachel Brosnahan will star as fellow reporter Clark Kent and love interest Lois Lane, while The Wire’s Wendell Pierce will play editor-in-chief Perry White. We’ll also see Beck Bennett as sports reporter Steve Lombard and Sara Sampaio as Eve Schumacher, but certainly one of the most interesting characters is Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen.

Gisondo (“Santa Clarita Diet,” “The Righteous Gemstones”) will portray the cub reporter in what will likely be one of the character’s most notable big screen appearances in a while. Why? Because Zack Snyder decided he’d better take this beloved Superman character and turn him into a CIA agent (played by Michael Cassidy) who gets killed off almost immediately in “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.” After this unofficial DC Extended Universe appearance, Jimmy, as portrayed by Gisondo, will return in Gunn’s Man of Steel, hopefully lasting a little longer than Cassidy’s version.

After filming wrapped at the end of July, Warner Bros. went on hiatus The first trailer for “Superman,” which introduces Gunn’s bold new DC universe, In an amazing way. While fans were distracted by the truth The clip also introduced DC’s most adorable character in the form of Krypto the Superdog, Some have suggested that specific footage from the preview indicates major development for Jimmy Olsen.

The “Superman” trailer is a variety of Easter eggs. The teaser has Dragon Ball Z fans obsessed with one particularly dark momentwhile This is the robot with David Corensweet’s Man of Steel kneeling on it In one quick shot it’s actually more important than you might think. Now, fans have taken things a step further by developing their own Jimmy Olsen theory based on some of the more fantastical visuals from the trailer.

At one point, Superman fights a giant kaiju in Metropolis, suggesting some kind of climatic showdown between the Man of Steel and the monster of a typical superhero movie. But what if this monster is not typical at all? Fans on both Twitter/X and Reddit They suggest that the kaiju in question is actually Jimmy Olsen – and there’s certainly precedent for this in the comics.

It’s going to be pretty cool when it’s revealed that the kaiju is actually Jimmy Olsen, who drank a mysterious potion. https://t.co/tAt8y4j4dA

– Owen Loves Comics (@owenlikecomics) December 19, 2024

As evidence of this, Oh people They publish a Silver Age comic book cover featuring a giant Jimmy Olsen who is electrocuted by a growth ray and transformed into a “giant turtle-man.” This special issue of “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen” was published in 1961, though the giant turtle-man will return in “Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3” in 2023. What’s more, this isn’t the only time he’s transformed Jimmy Olsen in DC comics.

At this point, nothing has been confirmed at all regarding Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen transforming into some sort of giant monster in the “Superman” movie. The trailer mainly shows the character in the Daily Planet newsroom and contains no footage even indicating the actual transformation process. But if the kaiju in the trailer turns out to be Olsen (after all, that giant monster in the trailer has the same color eyes as Gisondo), it won’t completely come out of nowhere.

Aside from his giant turtle-man form, Jimmy has undergone all sorts of transformations throughout DC’s history. In the 11 issues before the Turtle Monster debuted, Olsen became “Jimmy the Genie”, declaring on the front cover that he had “become the Genie of Aladdin’s Lamp”. Later, Olsen was transformed into a Bizarro version of himself after being infected with Professor Potter’s rays in 1964’s “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen” #80.

Throughout his time in the comic books, Olsen has also become a human porcupine, a mind reader, and in the 1960s “Jimmy Olsen” #44, the “Wolf Man of Metropolis.” All of this means that the character has a long history of transforming into all kinds of strange creatures, and while… “Superman” is about a unique modern interest, says James Gunnthis Silver Age preoccupation with sci-fi story tropes is definitely the kind of thing that would find a way to work into a Superman story.

While it’s still not certain that Jimmy Olsen will take on the form of the monster in the “Superman” movie, such a delightful idea sounds exactly like the kind of thing James Gunn would adopt in the film, which is populated by the lesser-known genre. DC characters you might expect from the director. Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho, Edi Gathegi’s Mr Terrific, and many more Justice League members appear in the “Superman” trailer. They’re all deep cuts compared to what we’ve seen before, and it’s clear that Gunn is bringing at least some of his offbeat sensibilities to Supes (just look at Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner haircut). This all bodes well for Jimmy Olsen’s kaiju in the final film, as the Giant Turtle Man himself has been somewhat out of DC history.

Considering that Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is supposed to be the main villain of the film, it’s very possible that the footage of Superman fighting a giant kaiju in the heart of Metropolis, in true Gunn fashion, has nothing to do with some of the climatic battles and in fact comes from A wild introduction to Jimmy Olsen. Just think how cool it would be to find Supes fighting Olsen’s giant turtle-man when the movie opens, only for him to succeed in returning the young reporter to his original form. This would certainly be one of the greatest character introductions in comic book movie history, and would go a long way toward setting the tone for Gunn’s vision for DC.

“Superman” opens in theaters on July 11, 2025.