Over twenty years after playing Nightcrawler in X2, Alan Cumming is returning to the role for Avengers: Doomsday. However, it had been so long that the actor initially thought it was a prank when the studio called him up.
“Well, I thought it was a prank, to start with,” Cumming told Variety. “When I went to meet them at Disney, it was — I can’t remember what Jewish holiday it was — it was a Jewish holiday. So the place was empty. I was like, ‘What’s going on? Is this like one of those shows that what’s his name used to host?’ Punk’d!“
But it was no prank, and Cumming returned along with a handful of his fellow OG X-Men cast members, including Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr, Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkhölme, Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy, and James Marsden as Scott Summers.
Just last month, Cumming spoke about his time on Avengers: Doomsday, saying it was an amazing experience, especially after not having the best time with his first appearance as Nightcrawler. “It was amazing. It was actually really…in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time,” he said. “A great film, great film. I love the film…It was actually really great to go back. And especially, I’m 60 years old. I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great. And everyone was really nice. And I got it done really quickly because I couldn’t go, because of The Traitors, when most of my scenes were being shot. So I squashed them all together, and got a green screen and various things and little scenes of people here and there. But it was pretty stealthy.“
The cast of Avengers: Doomsday includes Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, Simi Liu as Shang-Chi, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Lewis Pullman as Bob, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Channing Tatum as Remy LeBeau, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, and Robert Downey Jr. as Victor von Doom. The film is set to hit theaters on December 18, 2026.