Let’s dreamcast the X-Men before they appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
By Daniel Roman
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 22: Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Winner Bill Hader attends IMDb LIVE After the Emmys Presented by CBS All Access on September 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
12. Bill Hader as Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler, aka Kurt Wagner, is another beloved member of the X-Men team. He has the ability to teleport, which is useful in all kinds of situations. He’s also incredibly agile and can climb walls.
But the thing that stands out immediately about Nightcrawler is his blue fur, yellow eyes, forked prehensile tail, and three-pronged hands and feet. He looks like a demon, which couldn’t be more at odds with his personality. Kurt is a gentle soul, and sometimes a devout Catholic depending on the interpretation. He has a great sense of humor and is fond of playing practical jokes, fancies himself something of a swashbuckler akin to Errol Flynn, and is generally very charming and sensitive, even though he’s suffered through a lot and could easily have turned bitter.
There are a lot of layers to Nightcrawler, and whoever plays them will have to bring nuance to the part. Saturday Night Live veteran Bill Hader should have no problem with the character’s fun-loving goofy side, since he’s mainly known as a comic actor. He’s also thin with an angular face, and of German heritage to boot.
And like Nightcrawler, Hader has layers. He may be known for comedy, but he shows off serious dramatic chops in stuff like The Skeleton Twins, It Chapter Two and especially on HBO’s Barry, where he plays a neurotic assassin trying to go straight. Watching Hader work, sometimes you get the idea that he’s a dramatic character actor who just fell into comedy. He can bring the complexity and sense of spontaneity the character needs.
As for Kurt’s German accent, while on SNL Hader did dead-on impressions of everyone from Alan Alda to Vincent Price to James Carville; I’m sure he can get it down.
(Slide written by Dan Selcke)