Nightcrawler actor Alan Cumming compares his Avengers: Doomsday experience to his time in X2

Avengers: Doomsday actor Alan Cumming had nothing but positive things to say about his experience on the set of the upcoming MCU Blockbuster. The Scottish actor sat down for an interview with People Magazine on August 14, 2025. In the said interview, Cumming touched upon his experience on the set of Doomsday and contrasted it with that of 2003's X2/X2: X-Men United.

There, Cumming went into further details about the environment in the Marvel Studios movie. He revealed that he had a positive experience while playing Nightcrawler in comparison to playing the same character twenty-two years ago in 2003's X2. He has been open about the difficulty of working with Bryan Singer on the set of the 2003 movie. This is why he was pleasantly surprised with his experience on the Avengers: Doomsday set.

What did Alan Cumming say about working on Avengers: Doomsday?

Alan Cumming was officially announced to be a part of Doomsday's cast through a live-stream event on Marvel Studios' official YouTube channel. Since then, very little is known regarding his role in Avengers: Doomsday or if the movie has wrapped up production or not. However, on August 14, 2025, Cumming did confirm that he had completed his scenes early this month.

The actor confirmed to People Magazine at the Los Angeles Televerse 2025 conference to promote The Traitors. He said:

"I just came back. It was amazing. It was actually really... in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time."

The actor has been open about his negative experience on the set of X2:

After calling his experience in the 2003 movie terrible, Cumming described the movie as "A great film, great film. I love the film." However, even if he must've liked X2, it should be noted that the stories of director Bryan Singer's erratic behavior on the set are well-documented. Alan Cumming touched upon many events on the set of X2 in Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life, his memoir.

The memoir goes into detail about Singer's erratic behavior, including substance abuse. The book even describes a confrontation between Singer and the cast consisting of Cumming, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, and Sir Patrick Stewart. Singer apparently tried to assert himself as an auteur in that encounter, and that's when, according Cumming, Berry responded:

“I’ve heard enough. You can kiss my black a**.”

Cumming described the way he filmed his Avengers: Doomsday:

For 60-year-old Alan Cumming, it was exciting to return to play the role of a superhero as a senior citizen. Reflecting upon his experience on the set of Doomsday, the Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner actor said:

"It was actually really great to go back. And especially, I'm 60 years old. I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great. And everyone was really nice. And I got it done really quickly because I couldn't go, because of The Traitors, when most of my scenes were being shot. So I squashed them all together, and got a green screen and various things and little scenes of people here and there. But it was pretty stealthy."

Excited to meet Nightcrawler again? Catch Avengers: Doomsday when it releases in cinema halls on December 18, 2026.

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Edited by Ravikumar N