Alan Cumming played Nightcrawler in the 2003 movie ‘X2: X-Men United.’ He recently spoke about why he thinks it’s the ‘gayest’ project he’s ever worked on.
Cumming only played the Nightcrawler once, but he has strong feelings about the film’s themes and message. He explained that ‘X2: X-Men United’ helps people understand what it’s like to be queer by using artistic storytelling:
“Oh, I think the X-Men film I’m in is the gayest film that I’ve ever done. It’s got a queer director, lots of queer actors in it. I love the fact that something so mainstream and so in the comic book world is so queer. In a way, those films really help people understand queerness, because you can address it in an artistic way, and everyone is less scared of the concept.”
He added that the film is an allegory, which means it uses its story to represent real-life issues:
“It’s an allegory about queerness, about people having these great gifts and really great, powerful things that they have to hide to exist. Queer people understand what that’s all about.”
In this case, ‘X2: X-Men United’ is about people with special powers who have to hide them to be accepted, which is something queer people often experience.
He’s Open To Return To The Role
Cumming didn’t return for the next X-Men movies, but Kodi Smit-McPhee took over as a younger Nightcrawler in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ and ‘Dark Phoenix.’
In a 2012 interview, Cumming said he would like to revisit his role as Nightcrawler. He noted how special superhero films were when X2 first came out, saying:
“I really like it and everyone really responded to Nightcrawler and enough time has elapsed that I would like to go back to it. Although then when I did that film it was sort of the start of this spate of superhero and comic books made into films so it felt a little more special than it does now. X2 was a really great film, not just as a comic book film. I think it’s one of the films I’d been in that I think of as really good.”
Many names from past X-Men movies are set to appear in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ but there’s no word yet if Cumming’s Nightcrawler will be one of them.
