Nightcrawler's Shocking Death Changes Everything For Marvel Studios' X-Men
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
Nightcrawler dies in a 2026 Marvel Studios project, and it is that death that confirms a harsh X-Men truth heading into Avengers: Doomsday next month. The X-Men are at the forefront of Marvel's mind. Not only did Sadie Sink debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but the MCU has officially unveiled the cast for the X-Men reboot movie.
That X-Men film will be released in theaters on May 5, 2028, with Sink returning as Jean Grey and new actors like Adam Driver as Mister Sinister, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Kit Connor as Cyclops, and more being part of the movie. That said, before the MCU X-Men movie, Marvel Studios is developing other key projects featuring the mutants.
One of those just so happens to stand among the most ambitious MCU movies to date, as December's Avengers: Doomsday will bring back several actors and heroes from Fox's original X-Men movie timeline, such as the late Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier one more time, and put them alongside the MCU's Avengers teams and the Fantastic Four. However, that is not the only use of the X-Men.
Outside the MCU's slate of projects and Marvel's wider live-action offerings is the animated X-Men '97, which is highly regarded as one of the best Marvel shows on Disney+. Season 2 once again came with many shocking moments, including a heartbreaking death, and this Nightcrawler development is what changes the game as Marvel Studios prepares to enter its Avengers: Doomsday era.
Nightcrawler Dying Again In 2026 In Avengers: Doomsday Would Be A Disaster For The X-Men Hero's Future
Nightcrawler is one of the key characters in X-Men '97, which is why his death came as such a loss. It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, as Kurt Wagner sacrificed himself so that his sister, Rogue, could be spared by the Celestial Eson the Searcher from the deal she had made to defeat Apocalypse and save the love of her life, Gambit. As such, Nightcrawler went out as one of the most selfless Marvel characters, giving Rogue a shot at a happily ever after with Gambit after Remy LeBeau sacrificed himself in season 1 and came back to life in season 2.
With Nightcrawler dead in the X-Men '97 universe and the character not having been cast or even announced to be part of the MCU's upcoming X-Men movie, there is only one active version of Kurt right now on Marvel Studios' slate of projects. That would be Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler, who is one of the confirmed characters from Fox's original X-Men movie timeline to return in Avengers: Doomsday. As such, if anything were to happen to Nightcrawler, with the character being killed in the live-action movie, fans of the X-Men member could be left without Nightcrawler for quite a few years.
Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.
Sure, Avengers: Secret Wars could find a way to bring Cumming's Nightcrawler back to life if he died in Avengers: Doomsday, given the expected multiverse reset of sorts at the end of the 2027 movie, but nothing is guaranteed at this time. So, for the time being, Nightcrawler is in danger when it comes to Marvel's slate of projects.
Making his situation more complicated is the fact that Avengers: Doomsday is not only expected to be an action-packed movie with danger at every corner, given that the multiverse is collapsing and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is the main villain, but the X-Men are confirmed to be in danger. That comes through Avengers: Doomsday's trailers showing a destroyed X-Mansion and Doctor Doom controlling the Sentinels, aka mutant killing machines. Hopefully, Nightcrawler will make it out alive to keep one of the best X-Men in evidence for a longer time, but the odds are not looking great.
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Professor X is gone, and the team has to keep the dream alive without its anchor. Cyclops and Jean Grey try to hold the group together as the world keeps fearing and hunting mutants, while a shocking new direction puts their former enemy Magneto in a leadership role. Old wounds, public backlash, and new threats collide fast, forcing the team to defend a planet that does not want them and face a future none of them expected.
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Avengers: Doomsday
- Release Date
- December 18, 2026
- Runtime
- 165 Minutes
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Victor von Doom
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Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic
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Thor
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Vanessa Kirby
Sue Storm / Invisible Woman
Avengers: Doomsday is the fifth Avengers film and kicks off Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A stacked cast of heroes both new and old to the MCU — including members of the X-Men — will face off against Victor von Doom, revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 to be played by a returning Robert Downey Jr.
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