The last time we saw Nightcrawler was in 2003’s X2, where veteran actor Alan Cumming portrayed the famous blue-skinned teleporter. Now, Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler is back, this time as his younger self and played by Kodi Smit-McPhee (THE ROAD), who offers some insight as to where he drew his inspiration for the character, how he’ll appeal to fans, and what Kurt’s feelings are toward Apocalypse. So, what can fans expect from Smit-McPhee’s Nightcrawler?
“I believe we kind of get to see the side of Nightcrawler that we love so much in the comics,” says Smit-McPhee. “The more vulnerable, swashbuckling, joyous, random, personality that we love, but also so grounded in his faith at a young age as well, as we went with the choice to still have the designs. So, it’s a mix of ideas, but uh, something that I believe is pretty faithful to what the fans enjoy and, um, something that I can kind of relate to as well, so…”
Smit-McPhee also addresses where he got his inspiration for Nightcrawler and whether or not he drew from Cumming’s performance.
“…A lot of people would ask if we looked to their performance for any inspiration, but I think the beauty in it was being able to refer to the Marvel Universe itself and what fans love so much about the characters and being able to bring back the younger versions of them, I think it’s a great place to expand to and actually you’re going backwards, so that’s pretty cool.”
With such a massive threat on the horizon with Apocalypse, Smit-McPhee says that Nightcrawler starts in one place and end up at another, much like his teleportation skill, when facing the big bad and his own fears as a mutant and an X-Man.
“I’m sure Nightcrawler, he’s kind of scared of his own shadow at this point, so he’s probably pretty terrified. Through everything he does in this movie it’s kind of, as we say, the stepping-stones of becoming the brave hero he is.”