BAMF! And he’s gone.
Nightcrawler, a mutant with the power of teleportation, has returned to the “X-Men” film franchise. Since “X-Men: Apocalypse” will set its story in the 80s (a decade after “X-Men: Days of Future Past“), Kodi Smit-McPhee (real name: Kodi Andrew Johan Smit) has joined the cast to portray the young Nightcrawler instead.
The Australian actor recently took to Instagram to offer us a first look at his character:
Best known for his role as Owen in horror movie “Let Me In”, Smit-McPhee lent his voice in animated feature film “ParaNorman” as Norman Babcock and earned various awards and nominations for his roles in “Romulus, My Father” and “The Road”. He was also one of the main actors in last year’s “The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes“.
For his upcoming “X-Men role”, he will be portraying Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler, a fictional mutant created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. The mutant made his first comic book appearance in “Giant Size X-Men” #1 back in 1975. The live-action version of the character was first portrayed by Alan Cumming in Bryan Singer’s 2003 movie, “X2: X-Men United”. Despite Cumming’s brilliant performance, he won’t return to reprise his role in Singer’s upcoming “X-Men” film. The director hired Smit-McPhee instead so that he can portray the younger version of Nightcrawler in the 1980s.
Today marks the first day of the filming for “X-Men: Apocalypse” in Montreal and the director decided to tease his fans by releasing the first photo of Kodi Smit-McPhee as the mutant:
First day on set! Here is @kodismitmcpheee as #Nightcrawler. Catch him before he’s gone.… https://t.co/f8ppx6MCBn
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) April 27, 2015
The director teased his fans by removing the photo from his Instagram in less than 2 hours. The official Twitter account of “X-Men Movies” also shared a 6-second video of the mutant’s ability, but the tweet was immediately deleted as well. Before the tweet was deleted, they wrote, “Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. Check out this first look of @KodiSmitMcpheee as #Nightcrawler in #XMenApocalypse.”
Few hours later, they’ve decided to share the video again via the tweet below:
In case you missed him… See the first look at @KodiSmitMcPheee as #Nightcrawler in #XMen: Apocalypse.https://t.co/IPOxFDg8ta
— X-Men Movies (@XMenMovies) April 27, 2015
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James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, and Lucas Till will reprise their respective roles in “X-Men: Apocalypse” too. Oscar Isaac will portray the titular villain while Olivia Munn will play Psylocke.
Newcomer Lana Condor joined the cast as Jubilee while Sophie Turner, and Alexandra Shipp will play the younger versions of Jean Grey, Cyclops, amd Storm respectively. Ben Hardy was recently confirmed to be playing Angel and Evan Peters may show up as Quicksilver again.
The movie is slated for release on 27th May 2016 and it will be based on a screenplay written by Simon Kinberg, Mike Dougherty, and Dan Harris.
As for Smit-McPhee, he will be seen next in Nine Network’s 8-part drama series “Gallipoli” in 2015.
What do you think of the new Nightcrawler? Do you think Smit-McPhee can pull off the character? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.
(Source: comicbook.com)
