Alan Cumming Also Returning For 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past', Says James McAvoy [UPDATED]

[UPDATE: Coming Soon has now verified that Alan Cumming will not, in fact, return for X-Men: Days of Future Past. It's unclear who they spoke with, but since Cumming was never 100% confirmed for the film this shouldn't come as too much of a shocker. Original story follows.]

Here's one more to add to the growing pile of returning original trilogy stars for X-Men: Days of Future Past. As has long been rumored, Alan Cumming will reprise his role as the Kurt Wagner, who in the Munich circus was known as the Incredible Nightcrawler. Or so says Cumming's would-be co-star James McAvoy, anyway. Hit the jump to see what he said.

Comic Book Movie picked up the following quote from a recent interview with McAvoy. Read it below or hear it for yourself at Heat Radio – the X-Men talk starts around 4:13.

It's huge. The cast is huge. You've got me, [Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender,] Nick Hoult will be back and he's just blossoming massively over there [in the U.S.] as well. Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Alan Cumming, Peter Dinklage I hear mentioned -– I don't know if that's happening. "Huge" Jackman's coming by. He is huge. He's massive, he's just like — he's about 7'5" and like muscle-lier than Satan in the film Legend.

McAvoy's comment here shouldn't be taken as gospel. As an actor he has little control over the casting, and probably isn't the first to hear of developments on that front. But he's likely to know something about Bryan Singer's plans, so the fact that he mentions Cumming suggests that the former X-Man is at least being courted for a return.

If this pans out, Cumming will be the newest in a gigantic cast for the upcoming sequel. In addition to the actors named by McAvoy above, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore will all reprise their characters from the previous trilogy, and Intouchables star Omar Sy recently boarded in an unknown role.

The question now is what exactly Singer plans to do with all of these cast members. As exciting as it is to have so many awesome talents crowded together in one movie, to give each of them significant screentime would result in a very long and unwieldy film. I'm guessing the First Class cast will get to play a major part, but that some of the original trilogy returns will be little more than brief cameos.

X-Men: Days of Future Past shoots this spring for a July 18. 2014 release.