Alan Cumming first played Nightcrawler in 2003's X2: X-Men United, and he'll finally reprise the role in next December's Avengers: Doomsday. The actor initially shared a few exciting hints about the movie—including a possible clash between Kurt Wagner and Mister Fantastic—but has since chosen his words carefully after receiving a telling off from Marvel Studios.
Much has been said about Avengers: Doomsday being shot without a finished script, with some of the usual suspects on social media attempting to paint that as a disaster following the Multiverse Saga's struggles.
However, it's easy to forget that the same was true for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, two of the MCU's biggest critical and commercial hits.
During a recent interview, Cumming was asked if he saw a script while shooting Avengers: Doomsday and replied, "Oh yeah, we eventually saw a script. It took a while. We had a script."
It's worth noting that actors like Cumming likely only saw the pages they needed to see to help avoid any inadvertent leaks, and he went on to address the level of secrecy on set. "It's complicated. A lot of the time, some characters have different names for secrecy," the actor revealed. "I got the gist of it. It's massive."
While Marvel Studios and the Russo Brothers have assembled an impressive lineup of mutants for Avengers: Doomsday, the absence of characters like Jean Grey, Storm, and Wolverine has disappointed many fans. Still, it's safe to assume that they could be among those given different names to counter any deliberate or inadvertent leaks.
We also can't dismiss the possibility that the schedules of many actors meant they'll have to film their scenes during reshoots, not dissimilar to Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War.
"I did the entire film in isolation. Lots of green screen, face replacement," Cumming said last month. "They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time. I broke the internet by mentioning something once, but honestly, I might have got it wrong."
You can watch the full interview with Cumming on Avengers: Doomsday in the player below.
Avengers: Doomsday stars Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, and Robert Downey Jr. Wyatt Russell, Simu Liu, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Florence Pugh, Danny Ramirez, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Lewis Pullman all make their Avengers franchise debuts in the movie.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps leads Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn join them, as do X-Men franchise stars Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and Deadpool & Wolverine star Channing Tatum.
Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, and Ryan Reynolds are also set to appear, according to recent reports from the trades.
The Russo Brothers direct the movie from a screenplay by Stephen McFeely, with whom they previously collaborated on the Avengers and Captain America franchises. Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness's Michael Waldron is also working on the script.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.