20th Century Studios; Marvel Studios It's been over two decades sinceAlan Cumminglast played the teleportingMarvelmutant Nightcrawler. Now he's back forAvengers: Doomsdayand facing even more formidable foes, like —Mister Fantastic? "I'm playing Nightcrawler again now. I was learning stunts yesterday for the fight, some fight scene, and I just think, 'I'm 60 years old!'" Cumming recently toldBuzzFeed UK. "Twenty-three years ago I played that superhero, I was kind of old for a superhero even then, and now I'm back doing it. That to me is hilarious, so learning these fights, I'm like, 'What? Who am I fighting with?' They said, 'You're hittingPedro Pascalagainst the head,' or something." Cumming explained that he "can't quite believe" he's back in blue in the MCU, "especially because it was such a long time ago." "But that is quite a nice thing, I think, about life as you get older,"The Traitors'Emmy-winning reality TV host reflected, "is that things come back, they always do. And people do. It's a really nice thing about getting older." OtherX-Menactors returning includePatrick Stewart, who plays X-Men leader Dr. Charles Xavier;Ian McKellen, who plays Xavier's former friend turned formidable adversary, Magneto;James Marsden, who plays the laser-eyed Cyclops; andRebecca Romijn, who plays shapeshifter Mystique. All of these characters appeared in 2003'sX2: X-Men United, the film that marked the only appearance of Cummings' Nightcrawler (a.k.a. Kurt Wagner). Want more movie news? Sign up forEntertainment Weekly's free newsletterto get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Pascal, meanwhile, remains on the rarefied list of Hollywood stars who haven't appeared in the MCU. Only for a limited time, however, as he's slated to appear in new MCU filmThe Fantastic Four: First Steps, releasing July 25, 2025.Avengers: Doomsday, the first new Avengers film since the blockbuster 2019 release ofAvengers: Endgame, is set to follow on May 1, 2026. TheLast of Usactor is no stranger to high-budget, high-visibility projects, having the lead role inStar WarsseriesThe Mandalorianand as a major plot-driving character inGame of Thrones. He got his start, however, in guest roles on series likeBuffy the Vampire SlayerandLaw & Order. He toldEntertainment Weeklyin April that being cast at the head ofMarvel's super-powered new familywas "a big ,strange thing that I hadn't planned on happening. It changed the course of my life in a very sudden way, so I really had to process." Marvel Comics/20th Century Fox Cumming, meanwhile, is more granular in his appraisal of entering back into the MCU machine. Discussing thelaborious makeup procedurethat transforms him into Nightcrawler in April, Cumming enthused, "Actually, what's great about it — it was four-and-a-half to five hours before, and now it's 90 minutes... before, all the tattoos were done by hand, because they hadn't decided on them before we started filming. And now, they're on these little things and they stick on. It's a game-changer." Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
