Alan Cumming's uncomfortable makeup as Kurt 'Nightcrawler' Wagner in director Bryan Singer's X2 contributed to him passing on X-Men: The Last Stand (which turned out to be a smart move), but there's reason to wonder if the actor will go blue again for Singer's return to directing the franchise on X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The X-Men trilogy cast members Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore and Ellen Page are confirmed to team with the stars of X-Men: First Class (except for maybe January Jones as Emma Frost). At this point, there are so many characters lining up, adding one more to mix seems okay (especially if it's a fan-favorite like Cumming as the religious Nightcrawler)... right?

Well, actually, Singer refused to rule the idea out during an interview with The Huffington Post, saying he's currently "toying" with elements from the script put together by First Class director Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman, as well as X-Men: The Last Stand and Sherlock Holmes co-writer Simon Kinberg - and the director insisted "I haven't decided yet, a few things."

Days of Future Past is based on the popular storyline written by Chris Claremont - whose additional X-Men comic book output loosely inspired X2 and this summer's The Wolverine - has a story that includes time-travel, mutant-hunting Sentinels, alternate realities and much more. It's an ambitious project, one which requires even more complex mutant-based effects, grand-scale action and vaster character ensemble than previous installments; not to mention, if things work out, Singer's film could address those continuity issues that X-Men fanatics have trouble letting go (for a complete rundown go HERE).

Hugh Jackman tease X-Men cast reunion in X-Men: Days of Future Past

Cumming's in the same boat as Halle Berry (Storm) and Famke Janssen (Jean Grey/Phoenix) right now, as far as his potential involvement in Days of Future Past goes. During an interview with Coming Soon last December, the actor reminisced about how different the superhero movie landscape was back when X2 hit theaters - and, more important to our purposes here, confirmed that he's open to coming back as Nightcrawler, should Singer decide to bring him back into the fold:

"I haven’t gotten the call. Someone told me that Nightcrawler doesn’t appear in the story but I don’t know, I think they would have called by now," he told us before continuing, "It was funny that film because I really like it and everyone really responded to Nightcrawler and enough time has elapsed that I would like to go back to it. Although then when I did that film it was sort of the start of this spate of superhero and comic books made into films so it felt a little more special then it does now. X2 was a really great film, not just as a comic book film. I think it’s one of the films I’d been in that I think of as really good."

It ought be mentioned: Nightcrawler's not an integral part of the original Days of Future Past storyline (unlike Wolverine and Kitty Pride), so there's no incentive to bring him back in that regard. Similarly, this installment's already up against it to avoid reducing too many mutants to paper-thin versions of their past movie and/or comic book iterations (see: what happened in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine), so it doesn't really need any extra challenges.

Nonetheless, it could be fun to see Nightcrawler back again - especially in a scene about the connection between him and fellow teleporter Azazel (Jason Flemyng). What do you think?

The Wolverine hits theaters July 26, 2013. X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on July 18th, 2014.

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Source: The Huffington PostComing Soon