Casting for the upcoming sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse, has been underway for months and the production team has yet to make a misstep. First they retained the core talent of the rebooted franchise, including James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence. They then needed to find an actor with the gravitas and stature to fill the gigantic boots of the first mutant, Apocalypse. They managed to secure the dynamic Oscar Isaac, who is fresh off of a stint on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, to play villain who informs the film’s title.
Next up, director Bryan Singer began the search for the next generation of mutants and actors to carry the franchise. The iconic roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm, were cast with upcoming young talent including, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, and Alexandra Shipp, and suddenly the movie seemed ready to shoot. However, it turns out screenwriter Simon Kinberg and Singer, will be including even more well-known X-Men characters to the movie.
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) has been cast as Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse. On Tuesday night, Singer announced via Instagram that Smit-McPhee would be the actor to play the younger version of the character that was first seen in Singer’s X2: X-Men United.
To those unfamiliar, Smit-McPhee has been one of the strongest young actors in the business for the past few years. He first burst onto the scene as Viggo Mortenson’s son in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s heart-wrenching post-apocalyptic drama, The Road. From there he starred opposite Chloë Grace Moretz in Let Me In, voiced Norman in ParaNorman, and most recently had a large supporting role in last summer’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Singer has managed to cast yet another strong actor to add to the stellar ensemble.
Smit-McPhee doesn’t have a strong physical resemblance to Alan Cumming, the actor who brought Nightcrawler to life in X2. However, he does definitely have the physicality of the comic book character. Even more importantly, Smit-McPhee has shown a strong ability to play outsiders who don’t quite fit in. Nightcrawler is aptly described as a mutant and is one of the X-Men who typically endures the harshest bigotry, due to his blue skin and otherworldly tail. Nightcrawler aka Kurt Wagner, is German born and has the ability to teleport. His power was foreshadowed by Azazel in First Class, who had some of the most dynamic action in the movie.
It is yet to be seen how Nightcrawler will be introduced or will play into the larger plot of X-Men: Apocalypse. In the comic book history, Azazel and Mystique are his genetic parents. In X-Men: First Class, the romance was between Mystique and Magneto. In Days of Future Past, it was revealed that Azazel had been killed during Bolivar Trask’s experimentation. Mystique did take the opportunity to shed a tear when she uncovered his death, however a romance, much less a child has never been alluded to. There is an unaccounted 8-10 years in between the movies, so it should be interesting to see how Kinberg and Singer handle his conception. Regardless, it appears as if X-Men: Apocalypse is shaping up to be as big of an event movie as any other competitor in 2016. Casting is not yet complete, so hopefully we can get a confirmation on other big rumored castings, such as Channing Tatum joining the film as Gambit soon.
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Source: CBM