Moviegoers were given their fill of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) this summer with the release of The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, an acclaimed new entry that also saw the cinematic luck of the the Fantastic Four finally turn around for the better.
However, we haven't seen an Avengers film, in which the majority of the MCU's best loved heroes all join forces and come together, since 2019's Avengers: Endgame.
Initially, it looked like this popular chapter of the franchise would return with Jonathan Majors reprising his role as Kang The Conqueror, which he first played in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but following his arrest on charges of assault, plans for the project were dropped.
Thankfully, plans for a new Avengers movie were not dropped, simply shifted, with former Iron Man title player Robert Downey Jr. veering to the dark side as Victor von Doom.
Even so, fans seem to remain skeptical about the new Avengers installment, particularly after some worrisome remarks made by cast member Alan Cumming.
In a recent interview with Gold Derby, Cumming, who will be returning to the role of Nightcrawler for the first time since first playing him in 2003's X2, shared that his filming experience for Avengers: Doomsday was more than a little unorthodox:
"I did the entire film in isolation."
"Lots of green screen, face replacement."
"They even gave characters fake names."
"I don’t know who I was acting with half the time'."
“I broke the internet by mentioning something once, but honestly, I might have got it wrong."
These remarks sent something of a shockwave through readers, many of whom took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their disdain of Cumming's isolating experience, as well as the overall takeover of AI and technology in filmmaking in general:
One user reminded everyone how Ian McKellan, who will also be returning to his MCU role of Magneto in Avengers: Doomsday, had a similar experience while filming The Hobbit, which even led him to tears:
"In order to shoot the dwarves and a large Gandalf, we couldn’t be in the same set."
"All I had for company was 13 photographs of the dwarves on top of stands with little lights – whoever’s talking flashes up."
"I cried, actually. I cried."
"Then I said out loud, ‘This is not why I became an actor.'"
However, it seems that Cumming's experience with green screens wasn't quite as miserable as Sir Ian's was.
Cumming even told People that filming his scenes for Doomsday was "amazing."
"I just came back."
"It was amazing."
"It was actually really... in a sort of ooey, gooey way, it was really healing and really nice to go back to something that it was a terrible experience when I did it the first time."
"A great film, great film. I love the film."
Indeed, as Cumming noted in his recent memoir Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life, his experience filming X2 was "miserable."
This was all owing to the erratic to abusive behavior of director Bryan Singer, who following several allegations and lawsuits alleging sexual assault and misconduct, has largely stepped away from Hollywood.
Cumming went on to tell People that his solo filming was not thrust upon him, but was rather worked around him, as his schedule hosting the Emmy winning reality series The Traitors limited his time working on Doomsday.
"I got it done really quickly because I couldn't go, because of 'The Traitors,' when most of my scenes were being shot."
"So I squashed them all together, and got a green screen and various things and little scenes of people here and there."
"But it was pretty stealthy."
In addition to enjoying the fact that his makeup for Nightcrawler took about half as long to prepare on Doomsday as it did on X2, Cumming is also relishing the fact that he could return to being a super hero at age 60.
"It was actually really great to go back."
"And especially, I'm 60 years old."
"I did not think I would be doing stunts, playing a superhero in my 60s."
"So that was great."
In addition to Cumming, other X-Men veterans expected to return in Avengers: Doomsday include Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer and James Marsden.
It's unclear if they, too, will have to shoot most or all of their scenes solo in front of a green screen.
