X-Men: 7 Best & 7 Worst Casting Decisions In The Franchise So Far

5. Alan Cumming - Nightcrawler (X2)

Despite how pleasant it might be to think of Neil Patrick Harris under lots of dark blue make-up using his theatrical skills to give the circus mutant a flamboyant edge, X-Men fans really have to be thankful he never made it past the audition stage, since the man who got the job was so pitch perfect. Cumming's casting was at least partly helped by his fluency in German - an essential element of the character - but it was his ability to segue between ferocious exoticness and brilliantly intelligent vulnerability that made Nightcrawler such a key figure in X2, even despite a limited amount of screen time. Sadly, Cumming wasn't invited back for the sequel, as the production team and the actor himself decided that it simply wasn't worth the preparation time, but in that decision we were robbed of one of the best supporting characters in the franchise who would have added a lot more to Days Of Future Past than some of the other surviving future mutants.