Avengers: Doomsday’s Alan Cumming Details Why Filming X-Men Was Far Worse

Alan Cumming recently opened up about reprising his role as Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday and reflected on how it differed from his first experience. In a new panel appearance, he shared details about filming the upcoming Marvel movie. He explained how returning to the character felt far more positive than his time on X2: X-Men United.

X-Men 2’s Alan Cumming has already wrapped Avengers: Doomsday filming

Alan Cumming told PEOPLE, “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.” He added, “A great film, great film. I love the film,” and noted that he had “just finished” shooting his scenes earlier this month.

The actor, who first played Nightcrawler in 2003’s X2, recalled that project as “awful for a variety of reasons that I have talked about at length.” He previously revealed that he spent “about four and a half hours” in makeup and clashed with director Bryan Singer. He detailed those struggles in his memoir Baggage: Tales From a Fully Packed Life. At the Televerse 2025 conference, he contrasted that experience with the streamlined filming of Avengers: Doomsday.

“I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s. So that was great,” Cumming said. He explained that his scheduling conflicts with The Traitors meant his work on Doomsday had to be condensed. “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.”

Cumming also highlighted how advances in makeup technology improved his time on set. “Before all the tattoos were done by hand ‘cause they hadn’t decided on them before we started filming, and now there are all these little things you stick on. It’s a game-changer,” he said, noting that the process now takes about 90 minutes instead of five hours.

Marvel Studios confirmed his return with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer, and James Marsden. Avengers: Doomsday will hit theaters on December 18, 2026.

Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net