If you have not watched the Smallville season eight finale, stop reading right now!  This interview contains a major Smallville spoiler that will ruin the episode for you.

Okay, now that we got rid of you guys, Ausiello recently did an exit interview with Aaron Ashmore after his character Jimmy Olsen died in the season finale.  Here's an excerpt:

Ausiello: When did you find out that Jimmy wasn't long for this world?
Aaron Ashmore: About six months ago, right around the time we finished shooting "Bride." I knew that Jimmy was going to get hurt in that episode and go on a little hiatus, so I talked to the producers and asked, "Guys, where is this storyline going?" And they said, "Well, we have an idea to send Jimmy on a bit of a downward spiral and, in the end, sacrifice himself for Chloe." That's what I originally heard. I didn't know that that was necessarily going to happen this season. It happened a little sooner than I had anticipated.

Ausiello: So, Jimmy's little brother is the real Jimmy, right?
Ashmore: That's how I read it. There's always been a bit of a discrepancy in how old Jimmy is compared to Clark and Lois, so this is a way of clarifying things. Jimmy [is supposed to be] 10 years younger than them, so Jimmy's little brother showing up totally makes it stick to the mythos.

Ausiello: What reason did producers give you for killing him off?
Ashmore: I know when [the idea of] Jimmy coming to Smallville first came up, DC Comics had a bit of a problem because of the age difference thing. But the producers really wanted to bring the character in because they thought they could do some interesting stuff with him. I believe [producers] had reassured DC that by the end of the series -- or at some point -- they would rectify that [by making it clear that he's] not the real Jimmy Olsen.

You can read the rest of the interview at EW.com.

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