If there's one thing that the X-Men film franchise has usually succeeded at, it's the use of makeup in bringing some of our favourite mutant characters to life. One memorable instance was Alan Cummings' Nightcrawler, last seen in X2: X-Men United. The character has finally made a return to the silver screen with the release of X-Men: Apocalypse this past Friday. Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the younger version of the character, and aside from the obvious visual changes made to suit the 1980's setting of the film, there were also some changes made to update Nightcrawler's skin and set him apart from the many blue mutants present in the film. Adrien Morot, head of the makeup effects department, recently shared the details with The Hollywood Reporter. "Kodi is a younger-looking actor than Alan was in X-Men 2. 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."
Morot hearkened back to the comic books for influence, looking to streamline Nightcrawler's appearance closer to his look on the page. "And one thing I wanted to bring to the character that wasn't in the original Nightcrawler makeup from 2002 was, if you look at the comic books, he looks feline in the way that he stands and with his tail and yellow eyes and the way the ears are shaped. That wasn't an obvious feature in the original interpretation," Morot said. "We brought that back to the character, not only in the way the ears were designed but in the scars. Even the contact lenses and the teeth that we made for him suggested more of a feline profile." This seems like an odd choice, given that Beast is usually associated with more feline qualities, but it's hard to argue with the results. Another essential element for Nightcrawler is his tail, which also received an update, surprisingly without the use of CGI. "For the original, it was a static tail," explains Morot. "But they asked me if movement could be incorporated — which normally would involve server motors or fishing wires. I started inquiring if there was any way to make it a practical tail without the added-on motor or puppeteers. We managed to do that. It was kind of like Lego. It would move with your body movement."
Did you enjoy Nightcrawler in the film? Sound off below! X-Men: Apocalypse is now in theatres.