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The cameraman accompanying Lois into the African desert is killed.
While it is not mentioned in the movie, this character is supposedly Jimmy Olsen played by Michael Cassidy. The Russian, after inspecting his camera and finding a transmitter embedded into it, shoots him. He is, however, shot off camera. Since he is such an iconic character, is it possible that he's still alive?
While, within the film, they never actually show him dead, cutting to the shooter and the sound of the gunshot, according to Zack Synder, he is indeed dead.
But why kill off such an iconic DC Comics character? Well it was all in the name of ‘fun’ according to Snyder.
spoiler:
He told Entertainment Weekly: ‘We did it just 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?’
Of course, such deaths often don't stick in comic books or the movies based off of them.
The release of Batman vs Superman: Ultimate Edition includes a scene where the character's CIA handlers observe the death and indicate that their code name is "Talon", a name used for an elite Court of Owls assassin who in the comics has the power to regenerate from injury. This suggests two more possibilities of the fate of this character, namely that
either the real Jimmy Olsen may be alive, unaware that his identity has been stolen, or the character killed is Jimmy Olsen, but is also Talon, and will eventually regenerate from his wounds, possibly after the CIA removed him from the scene.
I personally find the theory farfetched, but I include it for the sake of completeness.
Since he is such an iconic character, is it possible that he's still alive?
You're actually asking three questions: 1. Whether the character on screen is still alive; 2. Whether the character of Jimmy Olsen could still be alive.; 3. Whether credits, cuts, or director comments are canonical.
Yes, it's improbable, but since the shooting occurred off screen and is never explicitly raised again, it's possible the General fired in his direction, didn't kill him, and kept his fate ambiguous. Lois not tracking him down afterwards can be explained by his CIA status, she knows there's no point in finding him since he'll remain classified.
Yes, given that the character we saw was a "ghost" or CIA "spook", there's no certainty that he was the real Jimmy Olsen, so the character can still potentially appear.
Depends. Of course, none of this is an issue if you don't impose the identity of Jimmy Olsen onto the character we see at all. While credits are generally considered canonical, they're usually a lower tier of canon (and you will often find errors and mistakes in them in other movies) which give way to the content of the film. If something ends up on the cutting room floor it is usually disregarded as canonical... however, if it is added back in a subsequent cut of the film, it becomes up to the film community to decide whether or not it is canon (generally, the rule is it is; unless it contradicts another cut... see Star Wars for examples of added scenes versus altered scenes). Finally, irrespective of what the director says, generally such commentary is not regarded as canonical but strongly persuasive.
Although initially shocking, turning audience expectations on their head in order to set the stakes for the film is time-honored. While they ultimately didn't go through with the stunt, except as referenced in the credits. The character is still available for other creators though it's understandable that many of the character roles Jimmy would accommodate are reasonable shifted to Lois and Clark to enrich their characterization.
After watching the Batman vs Superman Ultimate Edition, we now know that the man in the desert was only using Jimmy Olsen's alias and hence Jimmy Olsen is very much alive in the DCEU...
