'Superman & Lois' Casts Douglas Smith As Its Jimmy Olsen
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Superman officially has his pal back. Or at least he’s going to be. Superman & Lois has cast Douglas Smith as Jimmy Olsen for the show’s final season premiering this fall on The CW.
While the extent of the role is unknown, it does add fuel to the speculative fire that the season will be set in Metropolis. It also marks the establishment of the character after the series, initially conceived as a Supergirl spinoff, was revealed to take place on an entirely separate Earth. In that series, he was played by Mehcad Brooks, who currently stars as NYPD Detective Jalen Shaw on Law & Order. Brooks was a series regular as Olsen for its first 4.2 seasons, who having moved to National City to be out on his own, became known as the hero the Guardian. He would end up running CatCo after the show moved to Vancouver his boss Cat Grant moved to Metropolis. Quitting CatCo upon new ownership changes, his departure came in the fourth episode of season five “In Plain Sight” to become the editor of his hometown paper, The Calvintown Gazette. He would return for the series finale.
This version of the character is still a Daily Planet photographer, but now he’s an “extroverted 20-something” known for being the “life of the party” at work. “Despite being work colleagues with Clark, he’s been unable to get him out of his ‘awkward’ shell,” the official description states. “Unaware of Clark’s super-secret, Jimmy’s still determined to become his pal.” While this does seem to confirm Clark will be headed back to work at the Daily Planet in the fourth and final season premiering this fall, it is unknown if they were already colleagues until the move back to Smallville at the start of the series.
Smith is best known as Ben Henrickson on HBO’s Big Love and Corey Brockfield in the second season of Big Little Lies. His other credits include Vinyl, ABC’s When We Rise, TNT’s The Alienist and CBS’s Silence of the Lambs series Clarice. On film, Smith is best known for playing Percy Jackson’s half-brother Tyson in 2013’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, with roles in Sleepover, Ouija, Terminator: Genisys, The Bye Bye Man and the upcoming Horizon: An American Saga. His casting continues to make Superman & Lois’s final season something of a family affair, as Smith is the younger brother of Gregory Smith, best known for starring as Ephram Brown on Everwood but has directed eight episodes of Superman & Lois. Bitsie Tulloch’s husband, David Giuntoli, was previously revealed to be directing an episode.
In addition to Tulloch, Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin as Clark/Superman, with Alex Garfin and Michael Bishop as his and Lois’s sons Jordan and Jonathan as well as Michael Cudlitz as Lex Luthor. Smith as Olsen is the second new character casting to be announced for the final season, as Yvonne Chapman has already been revealed as Amanda McCoy. It is well-documented the shedding of much of the show’s series regulars for this final season, but some, namely Dylan Walsh as Sam Lane and Erik Valdez as Kyle Cushing, are confirmed for appearances. Olsen is set to be played by Skyler Gisondo in next year’s DC Universe Superman, directed by James Gunn.
Source: TVLine