X-Men Apocalypse: The Reason Nightcrawler Got A New Look Revealed

When X-Men: Apocalypse hit theaters in the U.S. this weekend, audiences were reintroduced to Nightcrawler, a hero who had appeared in X2: X-Men United.

Originally played by Alan Cumming, the role was handed off to Kodi Smit-McPhee, who played the character somewhat differently. He also had a different look, different wardrobe — and in the case of this film, he was playing off a number of other blue-skinned characters: Mystique, Beast, and Apocalypse.

“Kodi is a younger-looking actor than Alan was in X-Men 2,” Academy Award-winning makeup effects department head Adrien Morot told Variety. “Also, Alan was a grey-black in the original movie, and they had a problem lighting him. So we had to make sure Nightcrawler’s look was camera-friendly. But they didn’t want him to look painted. So we had to come up with a skin that was not the same as the other blue characters; he had to look somewhat different.”

He also arguably played a more significant role in the film than Cumming’s version played in X2, making the re-envisioning of the character even more important to make work.

If you saw the film, you can rate it below and let us know whether you think it held up.

X-Men: Apocalypse is the ninth film in the X-Men franchise, and the fourth to be directed by Bryan Singer. The film features a screenplay by Simon Kinberg, and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Olivia Munn, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Lucas Till, Josh Helman, Lana Condor and Ben Hardy.

Check out when X-Men: Apocalypse and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com’s Movie Release Schedule.