Over at Alan Cumming‘s official website you’ll find the following statement: "Alan will NOT be appearing in X3. Fox has not picked up his option to play Nightcrawler for a second movie." Which means one of two things: Either the cast is already crowded enough and Nightcrawler doesn’t really fit in to the planned adventure -or- Fox has opted to hire a different actor for the role. Either way it’s pretty bad news, since most of the X-fans will agree that Mr. Cumming’s Nightcrawler was one of "X-Men 2"s true highlights.