Smallville Gets its Jimmy

      They've already introduced Lois Lane and Perry White on Smallville, and now the producers have decided it’s time to fill in the last piece of the future Daily Planet staff by bringing on young Jimmy Olsen (who it turns out, isn’t so young in this incarnation). Aaron Ashmore, who will appear as Jimmy on a recurring basis this season, talked to Now Playing about playing the iconic character at the first ever TCA press party for the new CW network last night.

      Don't expect Ashmore's Jimmy to wear a bow tie and follow Clark around like a puppy dog. As the Smallville writers have done in the past with characters from the Superman mythos and elsewhere in the DC universe, they're putting their own spin on Jimmy. "He's not quite the same as we've seen him in the past," Ashmore said. "It's not that same kind of energy between [Jimmy and Clark]. So I think they're going to be friends, but I think it might take a while maybe to develop it if that does happen. I hope it does. I think that would be interesting."

      Jimmy will work as an intern at the Planet alongside Chloe Sullivan (played by Allison Mack), and will strike up a relationship with the feisty blond. For that reason, the writers have made him a bit older and a bit cooler than his comic book counterpart. "We're trying to make him maybe a little more hipper and stuff because he's going to be a love interest for Chloe, and that's got to be believable," Ashmore said. "She's a good-looking girl and if he was too nerdy or whatever that might not work.”

      But even with these alterations, Ashmore assured that some of Jimmy's most recognizable traits, like his wide-eyed optimism, will remain intact. "There's definitely an innocence," he said. "And he's still got that energy and stuff about him. And he's not slick at all. But I think maybe he's just a little bit cooler."

      Smallville returns in the fall for a sixth season on the new CW network.

Cindy White / Now Playing