Actor Alan Cumming, who will reprise his role as Nightcrawler in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, shares his perfect reaction to the news. After Marvel Studios confirmed the X2: X-Men United star is part of the massive ensemble cast being assembled for Doomsday, Cumming took to social media to share a charming video of himself mimicking Nightcrawler’s movements as he jumps around his house. His post also includes old X2 promotional images of himself in his full Nightcrawler costume. Cumming’s caption suggests that he was always holding out hope that one day he’d be able to play the mutant again.
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“Never say never!” Cumming wrote, using the #AvengersDoomsday hashtag and tagging the official Marvel Studios account. Check out his post in the space below:
Cumming is just one of the actors from Fox’s X-Men films who will be a part of Doomsday. Marvel’s cast reveal confirmed Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden have come onboard. Another X-Men character, Channing Tatum’s Gambit (who debuted in the Marvel Studios production Deadpool & Wolverine), is also set to appear in Doomsday.
[RELATED – Marvel Already Revealed How They’ll Include the X-Men in Avengers: Doomsday]
Prior to Avengers: Doomsday, Cumming’s only performance as Nightcrawler came in X2. For a time, he was going to return for 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, but the character was ultimately cut during early development. There was also speculation that Cumming could be in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but that obviously did not come to pass. Kodi Smit-McPhee played a younger version of Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
Cumming’s turn as Nightcrawler is one of X2‘s many highlights; his attack in the White House is still considered one of the best action sequences in a comic book adaptation. The actor quickly became a fan favorite by perfectly conveying several of Kurt Wagner’s notable traits, including his friendly, sensitive nature. As such, it will be very exciting to see him back in the Marvel universe after all these years. Given the sheer number of characters featured in Avengers: Doomsday, it remains to be seen how large Nightcrawler’s role is, but hopefully directors Joe and Anthony Russo have cooked something up to make Cumming’s return worthwhile. It would be great if he got the spotlight in a set piece, showing off the character’s abilities.
This amusing glimpse of Cumming sliding back into Nightcrawler mode might be the best look fans get for a while. While Avengers: Doomsday is in production, the Russo brothers are taking extra steps to prevent any set leaks, so the odds of photos or videos of Cumming in full Nightcrawler garb getting out are low. That’ll just make the full reveal of Nightcrawler in Doomsday even sweeter; even if the X-Men actors’ roles are small, Marvel will want to tap into the nostalgia factor during promotion and will probably highlight Cumming among the other returning faces. In the meantime, the actor seems very excited to get back into the mutant action, and it’ll be interesting to see how Nightcrawler fits into the epic story.
