The Nightcrawler finds his way back into the "X-Men" franchise. Director Bryan Singer, who returns to helm "X-Men: Apocalypse," announced the addition of Kodi Smit-Mcphee as the young version of the teleporting blue mutant. Mcphee has been in films like "The Road" and "Let Me In," but the role of Nightcrawler should be a completely new experience for the 18-year old.
Singer had earlier expressed his desire to bring back the character to "X-men," which was previously played by Alan Cummings in "X2." In a statement to Cine Premiere last year, Singer mentioned that he was planning on featuring characters Gambit and a younger version of the Nightcrawler for "X-Men: Acpocalypse." He said that although he had planned and even wrote a scene for the character in "Days of Future Past," he eventually dropped the idea as the story was getting saturated by too many mutants.
Smit-McPhee is the latest addition to the "Apocalypse" cast that has been growing steadily. The other additions are Sophie Turner from "Game of Thrones" who is slated to play Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan who will take on the role of Cyclops, and Alexandra Shipp to portray Storm. Rose Byrne is also set for a comeback to the hugely successful franchise.
Members of the established cast of the "X-Men" universe, including James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) and Nicholas Hoult (Beast) will also be featured. It is not confirmed whether Hugh Jackman will reprise his mantle role of Wolverine.
Apart from that, there are other plans in the pipeline for other characters, both within the regular "X-Men" movies as well as independent films with characters from the X-Men Universe. For instance, there are plans for a "Gambit" movie for next year. Channing Tatum has been pulled in to play the swashbuckling, smooth-talking mutant and he just might make an appearance in "Apocalypse" as well.
