Alan Cumming says filming X2 was "miserable" but helped bond the cast, many of whom he remains close with
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When talking with PEOPLE at the TriBeCa Ball in New York City, he shares that the cast is "bonded in trauma"
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Avengers: Doomsday, featuring returning X-Men actors, is set to release in theaters on Dec. 18, 2026
Alan Cumminghas kept in touch with hisX2castmates despite their traumatic on-set experience.
At the TriBeCa Ball at the New York Academy of Art on April 20, Cumming opens up to PEOPLE about reprising his role as Nightcrawler from theX-MenmovieforAvengers: Doomsday.
When asked what it was like to reconnect with past cast members, the Emmy winner notes that he has actually remained in contact with several of them over the last 20 years.
“The ones that I did reunite with, I've seen them since,” he tells PEOPLE.
“I also didn't reunite with that many because we did it all sort of separately; it was a bit of a modern way of doing things," he says. "I'm very chummy with Ian [McKellan], I've seen Rebecca [Romijn] over the years. Patrick [Stewart], I've seen quite a lot. Jimmy [Marsden], I've seen a lot of them actually."
"It's one of those films where I think we all were so traumatized we were bonded in trauma, so we stayed in touch,” Cumming adds.
Last year, Marvel announced that Cumming was one of the actors reprising their roles in the forthcomingAvengersfilm, which is set to arrive in theaters in December 2026, over two decades after Cumming's first appearance as the mutant in 2003'sX2.
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Recently, Cumming toldPEOPLEat the TIME100 Gala that it was “really lovely to go back to something all those years later that I never thought I was going to go back to and I actually think, 'Oh, I really enjoyed playing this character.' "
"It was really nice. And the people who made it, the brothers, are really lovely and very conscious of making sure everyone on set feels valued and what more could you ask for," he added.
While speaking with PEOPLE before apanel forThe Traitorsat the Televerse2025 conference last year, however, the actor noted that his experience filming the first superhero film was much different. Cumming said filmingDoomsday"was amazing" and, "in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time."
TheTraitorshost emphasized that he was "miserable" makingX2,which was "awful for a variety of reasons that I have talked about at length" — such as having to spendup to five hours in the makeup chairand difficulties working with directorBryan Singer.
The returningDoomsdaycast is set to include the likes of Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez,Paul Rudd,Tom Hiddlestonand Simu Liu, as well as Cumming, Romijn andKelsey Grammer, who costarred with Stewart, McKellen and Marsden in theX-Menmovies released in the 2000s and 2010s.
Avengers: Doomsdayis in theaters Dec. 18, 2026.
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