Alan Cumming is thrilled his 4.5-hour ‘X-Men’ transformation is now much shorter

Alan Cumming is suiting up for Avengers: Doomsday — and the process of getting into character has never been easier.

The Traitors host said he was “amazed” by his return to the Marvel multiverse during a recent appearance on Today With Jenna and Friends. “It’s 23 years since I was a superhero.”

Cumming, who is reprising his role as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler from 2002’s X2: X-Men United in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, explained that he hasn’t begun the superhero crossover movie yet, but has begun preproduction with makeup tests.

“Actually, what’s great about it — it was four-and-a-half to five hours before, and now it’s 90 minutes,” the actor revealed. “Because before, all the tattoos were done by hand, because they hadn’t decided on them before we started filming. And now, they’re on these little things and they stick on. It’s a game-changer.”

To match the comic book character’s complexion, Cumming brought the fan-favorite mutant to life under heavy blue makeup, which featured intricate face tattoos that also extended to his torso and arms in a shirtless scene. Nightcrawler’s look shared a complementary yet distinct aesthetic to fellow blue mutant Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), who donned detailed, scaly makeup from head to toe in the first three X-Men movies (and her makeup routine took nine hours to complete!).

Cumming reiterated his amazement at returning to the character after over two decades on Today. “I’m going back to being a 60-year-old superhero,” he said. “And everyone seems to be lovely. I go to London on Sunday. It’s starting, it’s in pre-production, and it starts shooting quite soon. It’s gonna be nuts.”

Cumming will be joined by his X2 costars Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier/Professor X), Ian McKellen (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops), and Romijn in Doomsday. The film will mark the Marvel Cinematic Universe debut for all of the mutant actors besides Stewart, who briefly appeared in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as an alternate universe version of Xavier. 

Other mutant characters like Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson/Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Logan/Wolverine appeared in last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which was produced by Marvel Studios and featured some crossover with the main MCU — but none of them besides Channing Tatum’s Remy LeBeau/Gambit have been announced as part of the Doomsday squad. Additionally, Kelsey Grammer briefly reprised his role as Hank McCoy/Beast in 2023’s The Marvels, and will also appear in Doomsday — but since he originally debuted in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, he never crossed paths with Cumming’s Nightcrawler, who only appeared in X2.

Other heroes confirmed to appear in Doomsday include Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Shuri/Black Panther (Letitia Wright), and Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía). 

The film will also feature all four members of the titular team from the forthcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps — Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).

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Additionally, almost all of the antiheroes from Marvel’s next film, Thunderbolts, is slated to appear in Doomsday, including Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Bob/Sentry (Lewis Pullman).

They’ll all face off against Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor Von Doom when the movie hits theaters on May 1, 2026.

Watch Cumming’s full interview on Today above.