Once again I find myself agreeing with you, John, although not necessarily because of what you said. There are some worrying pieces of news coming out about X3... including some shocking treatment of established characters.

However, for me, Nightcrawler isn't one of those I'm particularly concerned about. I saw him as more of a periphery character: a second- or even third-class character compared to Xavier, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Magneto, Cyclops, Rogue, Mystique, etc.

That might be because I've only seen the film once, and not recently. Maybe I've not remembered it correctly. But I think there are far more worrying things to get, er, worried about. Like the death of some characters...

Yes John I wouldn't get to worried about this. From all the things we've read about this movie, there are going to be a number of new characters, and we don't want to over do it with characters and developing things for them to do. Focusing on a smaller squad is more affective and cheaper. I am sure we will hear references to the apcent team members but the story line will focus on the new ones.

I think it will still be OK.

Totally agree John. I'm stuck in my new office headquarters showing people around at the moment and I was wanting to post this story, I feel really strongly about this too and I've said before he's a greatly underused talent. He tends to get stuck in roles that are more comic in nature, yet he's an amazing character actor.

Specifically in X-Men his Nightcrawler character was superb as well and it's crazy not to include him.

He was cut probably because Nightcrawler isn't in the script. I can't think of anything more to do with that character myself.

There are lots of characters among the X-Men mythology. This is a movie series, not a TV show, so not every character can be showcased. I feel X2 did a great job with Nightcrawler but pretty much everything about the character that interested me in him was in that film. I don't care to see that character anymore. Move on to new characters now please.

But why bother introducing us to a new hero character... invest screen time in him... and then "pooff", he's gone just like that. Not dead... not killed... just vanish him. What a waste. Kurt Wagner had the potential to be one of the most interesting characters in the X-Movies... and now they threw him, and all that screen time dedicated to him in X-2, away.

Bad move

that's what happens when you star in crappy films; "the mask 2". you get cut from the good films. so think about that next time all you big movie stars. when you make a bad movie people connect that with you and slowly but surely you stop getting the big roles.

Hey there Jason

I disagree. I think film producers and directors are smart enough to know that you don't blame an actor for a bad movie... you only blame them for bad performances. And as awful as "Son of the Mask" was, Cumming did quite well as Loki (even though he had stupid tupid lines).

But yes... if an actor is on like 5 turkey movies in a row and audiences get turned off of them... then that could have an effect. But I don't think that had anything to do with this particular situation.

Besides... according to the box office results I think only 32 people actually saw the film... and 28 of those people were realtives of the cast and crew.

Cheers!

John, don't you mean 'bamf' he's gone just like that? I also disagree, I don't see The Mask 2 having any relation to this decision. What disappoints me is the obvious storyline they could have played up between Nightcrawler and Mystique, which they seemed to hint at (or at least foreshadow) in the scene they shared together in X2. In the comics, I'm pretty sure it is revealed that Mystique is Nightcrawler's mother. I mean how many blue skinned mutants are there? (Quiet Beast!)

No Alan Cumming? No Lilly or Joe at the opening or watching it on DVD or Sat. Fuck the retards who are gonna make this sequel!

The X-Men franchise faces a real dilemma. Too many characters. X2 juggled them as well as could be done. The best direction would be to make future installments focus on two or three characters much like that latest reports that Jackman wants to a Wolverine movie.

Wow.

I am speachless.

Not only are the rumours of a bad script and director-musical-chairs aside, I am already discouraged to see this film.

John can likely tell you just how avid of an XMen fan I am. I am mostly responsible for getting him to read it in the first place. So it says a LOT when someone like me anticipates that I will NOT be seeing this movie.

I just can't believe that the ONE thing that kept the first two XMovies as good as they were is to keep them as close to the books as possible. I was so relieved and excited that Singer did this. Now I guess they want to go down in history as the ones who destroyed the franchise. This is their only goal. And they are doing it well.

the problem is that there are just too damn many characters in x-men. how do you juggle all of them? well, killing some of them off, or making them lose their powers, or having them just not appear in one movie are a few options. as frank pointed out, we have to remember this a movie series, not a tv show, so giving enough story development time to a large cast is a challenge.

I think the movie could still turn out to be good. Nightcrawler was cool, but he wasn't a very big character. Gambit and Juggernaut should make up for his absence.

"WHA WHA WHA!" Thats all ive heard this week! OH NO! "THIER KILLING PEOPLE!", "WHA! RATTNER'S DIRETING IT", "I'VE NEVER SEEN A GIRL NAKED! WHA!" Give it a rest, you cant have a carbon copy of the comics, if I recall Storm and Wolverine werent in the original X-men team. So what Nightcrawler's not in it, I loved the character but I'm quite happy that not every mutant that helps the X-men Films has to join them. I am not going to say this is a crap or a good movie as a fan till after I have seen it for my self.
As for all you other supposed X-men fans all this; "I'm not going to see it, id rather sulk" SHUT UP! we ALL know you will go see it so get off your high horses,
If your so great, YOU try and make the sodding movie! But it would be some half brained, self indulgent mess with around 30 characters.
I've said my piece and I think I've made some good points.

The X-Men movies so far have been pretty good. They writers have managed to juggle a lot of stars in a two hour time frame. Still the ultimate problem is that the X-Men team is so big that they all can't even fit into one comic book. The only way that you could make a truly amazing X-Men movie with such a cast is to take one of those cross issue story lines and turn it into a 6 plus hour movie. They started this with X-Men 2 by beginning the Dark Phoenix storyline, however, if I remember correctly the team wasen't so big back in those days and some of the characters they have introduced weren't around back then and others were a lot older. They probably should have picked a storyline to run with from the beginning. One story line that I believe would be great to see on the screen is the Age of Apocalypse, however, I doubt a studio would want to devote resources to such a huge project. That would have every X-Men character to ever exsist.

*sigh* I'm disappointed Alan Cumming won't be playing Nightcrawler in the X3 movie. I adore Alan, even if he's made some bad movie choices, he's also done some fantastic work. Nightcrawler is also one of my favorite XMen.

Perhaps, if there is a 4th movie he will return. Though with all the rumors flying around I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that this movie will not live up to what the majority of the fans would like to see. I'm still trying to remain hopeful and just wait and see.

WTF!!!! why the hell isnt Nightcrawler in Xmen3?!!! NIghtcrawler was my favorite X-men character since i was around 6 years old and they just cut him out of the movie. And what about mistique and Nightcrawler eh? They didnt even tell us that Nightcrawler's mother was mistique! I think this movie is gonna be gay. I WAS all hyped up about it but without Nightcrawler its just jewish.

Having read or rather skim read "that" article, what bothers me most about the upcoming X3 is Halle Berry apparently taking a more central role. She simply doesn't have the screen presence of Jackman, McKellen or Stewart and you think the lesson would have been learned with the dire Catwoman. While I have never really been sanguine with the way bad lad, badder attitude Wolverine's character is portrayed in the X movies (at least Jackman in leather gets this girl's pulse racing!), the short-round Berry simply doesn't cut it as the supposedly commanding, statuesque and very Amazon-like Storm.
Cummings' rendition of Nightcrawler was supurb and I really expected to see the actor reprise his role. Damn shame it's not going to happen.
Vinne Jones as Juggernaut is simply taking the piss. I mean, Juggie is built like brick shithouse and Vinnie, well he isn't is he. Well hell, we got a tall Wolvie (no big complaint from this quarter) and a dwarf Storm so I guess there's some twisted form of consistency here.
As for characters being killed off. Well, so what? Anyone who reads the comics knows that dead characters get routinely resurrected more times than Princess Di's love life.
That said, I will be queueing with the faithful to see the movie in the hope that an apparent dog's dinner will miraculously transform into a feast of entertainment. And of course, there's still the man in leather...

I don't think this is such a big deal. I think it is a good idea to put Nightcrawler on hold for X3 so that thye can concentrate on the phoenix(hopefully) and some of the new characters they're bringing in. However, I completely agree that they must bring back both the character and the actor in a future film to investigate the Mystique/Nightcrawler relationship.

I'm utterly dissapointed that Alan isn't going to be in X3. He was my favourite xmen from the movies. And with both of them combined my favourite scene was the start of X2 with him in the white house.Gutted. Utterly gutted. As for Hale Berry, she made a pretty weak storm. She had very little lines and she did them quite soft spoken. But its too late now, we can't lose storm. And it'd be weird seeing her played by someone else. Well done lads, ye fucked up royally there.
Pah, still can't wait to see it. Fair play to Kelsey Grammer for stepping up and playing Beast though.

am I the only one who reckons that the whole saga went down the pan since the first one. no- one ever explained the mystique was rogues adopted mother in the first one, no-one seemed to bat an eyelid in the second one when mystique, rogue and nightcrawler were in the same scene at one point and even with jean greys telepathic abilities going through kurts head couldn't tell that there was something not right. And now they are going to cut the fuzzy man out, you all seem shocked? and this is from the film that will go on about the phoenix saga and NOT include sebastian shaw and the hellfire club, or the shi'Ar empire. some one should put me in charge of writing the script, and maybe we might get the wise cracking, show-boating, ladykilling bobby drake we all know and love(as opposed to the overly sensitive, boy-scout we have all seemed to have accepted as standard) amongst the many many things that the films so far have been lacking

Vic I certainly agree that they need to give Drake some edge. He is way too good. Makes him uninteresting. As for Nightcrawler. I won't miss him much but my fiance' loved him. She really liked his character and the performance. I say so be it. My favorite in the movies and comics is Wolverine and if they branch off to make Wolvie movies than I'm happy. This could be the last X-Men movie as long as they make at least one just Wolverine.