“X-Men: Apocalypse” will also be featuring the younger versions of the franchise’s heroic mutants. Kodi Smit-McPhee, the actor who was chosen for the young Nightcrawler, has revealed some key details about his role.
“I think I am really going to make it my own,” he told Den of Geek. “It is, kind of, going back and it is seeing the younger character.”
Apparently, he has realized that the Nightcrawler’s character in “X2” was “one that has been through quite a bit more and has really embraced the superhero part of him,” later referring to the mutant as “violent.” He plans to portray a “more vulnerable” and kinder Nightcrawler – the one that Marvel fans were able to relate to in the comic books.
“It is really the fun, happy, swashbuckling Nightcrawler that we all love,” Smit-McPhee added. “So, I really cannot wait to portray that. He is just very vulnerable and truthful and grounded in his faith. I think it is something new, though, that we will see.”
Despite reiterating that his take on the role will be “something new,” he did give a hint that “X-Men: Apocalypse” film makers decided to retain the key details regarding Nightcrawler’s origin. “But, as I said, all of the traditional things that we want in it – it is still there,” he added. “Hint, hint.”
The “hint” that Smit-McPhee was referring to might be about Nightcrawler’s parentage. In the comic book storyline, it was revealed that Mystique, the flexible shape-shifter, was his mother, and Azazel, the teleporting mutant with demon-like features, was his father, as pointed out by Comic Book.
This could be where Nightcrawler’s “vulnerable” side steps in. A mother-and-son reunion could be an emotional angle for the action-packed blockbuster. This arc could be explored in “X-Men: Apocalypse,” especially since it was not featured in the previous trilogy.
Screen Rant has pointed out that Mystique and Azazel first shared the same screen in “X-Men: First Class,” portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence and Jason Flemyng, respectively. The setting then was 1962 – which makes it possible that, by the time the events at 1983-set “X-Men: Apocalypse” transpired, Mystique and Azazel had an indigo-skinned lovechild.
This detail can be connected to a scene in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” wherein Mystique makes it her goal to kill Bolivar Trask, played by Peter Dinklage, after finding out that Azazel was one of the mutants that the scientist had experimented on.
Joining Lawrence and Smit-McPhee are Michael Fassbender for Magneto, Lucas Till for Havok, James McAvoy for Professor X, Evan Peters for Quicksilver, Sophie Turner for Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan for Cyclops, Nicholas Hoult for Beast, Olivia Munn for Psylocke, Ben Hardy for Angel, and Lana Condor for Jubilee.
