Marvel Studios confirmed Alan Cumming’s casting as Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday back in March, and his upcoming return in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might finally give him his comic-accurate costume. 20th Century Fox routinely shied away from making its live-action X-Men team comic-accurate, which meant that the likes of Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Storm, and more never sported faithful adaptations of their superhero suits from Marvel Comics. In X2: X-Men United from 2003, Cumming joined the cast as Kurt Wagner’s Nightcrawler, but he, too, didn’t get a comic-accurate design.
Marvel’s chair-laying casting announcement at the end of March 2025 saw Alan Cumming shockingly confirmed to be returning in Avengers: Doomsday. Alongside other returning X-Men franchise actors (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, and Channing Tatum), Cumming is expected to finally get a comic-accurate suit in Doomsday. This design has been imagined in brilliant new fan art shared by @itoonofficial on Instagram, which puts Cumming’s Nightcrawler in his red-and-black superhero costume.
What Other Comic-Accurate X-Men Costumes Could We See in Avengers: Doomsday?
Nightcrawler has sported his red-and-black costume in Marvel Comics ever since his debut in 1975 in Giant Size X-Men #1. It will be amazing to see Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler finally sport his comic-accurate suit in Avengers: Doomsday, but he won’t be alone, as the other returning X-Men franchise stars are also expected to get new costumes. Where Fox failed, Marvel Studios will succeed, and the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Marvels, and Deadpool & Wolverine already proved this will be the case.
We already saw Stewart’s Professor X get his yellow chair in Multiverse of Madness, while Grammer’s Beast had a much more comic-accurate design in The Marvels. Deadpool & Wolverine’s titular stars haven’t yet been confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday, but the faithfulness Marvel showed to Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ new suits make us hopeful the other returning X-Men will get the same treatment. A recent leak from Avengers: Doomsday showcased some of these costumes, which makes us even more excitement for the Russo brothers’ upcoming sequel.
We can expect to see Marsden’s Cyclops in his blue suit with yellow straps, McKellen’s Magneto in blood-red robes, Tatum’s Gambit in his comic-accurate suit from Deadpool & Wolverine, and even Romijn’s Mystique finally in her white get-up – no longer naked. Avengers: Doomsday will set a new standard for the X-Men that will continue in the MCU’s own X-Men reboot, which will be directed by Jake Schreier. The prospect of Nightcrawler and the other X-Men getting their faithful suits makes Avengers: Doomsday an even more anticipated MCU instalment.
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