Alan Cumming on His Hollywood Walk of Fame Honor and Marvel Comeback
Alan Cumming opens up about the surreal experience of joining the Hollywood Walk of Fame and looks back on his remarkable career. He also teases his highly anticipated return as Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday.
Alan Cumming recently described his induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame as “actually insane,” joining a legendary lineup that includes Robert De Niro, Alfred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe, Cate Blanchett, and even Godzilla. The Scottish-born actor, now the host of the American version of the murder-mystery reality show The Traitors, spoke with Variety just before receiving his star, reflecting on the path that led him to this milestone.
“It ’s something so out of my expected career path or even my mental periphery. I am so grateful and kind of shocked by it. But it really has made me take stock and realize what an incredible journey I’ve had and how much I was helped by so many people in Hollywood and in America.”
At 60, Cumming invited fellow Scot and Succession star Brian Cox to the January 8 ceremony, along with close friends Monica Lewinsky, TikTok creator Dylan Mulvaney, and his husband Grant Shaffer. He shared,
“As you get older, you realize that you are a product of everything that’s happened to you: I owe so much to being Scottish in terms of my training and the opportunities I was given, and then coming to America and having this incredible new range of opportunities has allowed me to live in an incredible way that I never thought was possible.”
Nightcrawler Returns: A Marvelous Twist
This December, Cumming is set to reprise his role as the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler in the much-anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. He first brought the character to life in 2003’s X2: X-Men United, making a memorable entrance with a high-octane White House sequence that left a lasting impression on fans.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cumming admitted that being cast in Doomsday came as a total surprise, especially since a younger version of Nightcrawler was later portrayed by Kodi Smit-McPhee in the prequel films.
“It’s interesting because that was one of the films that was not a great experience at all to make — and ended up being a really great film. I had a miserable time making it. All of us did. It’s not finished yet, but it feels healing to go back to something that wasn’t the greatest experience and enjoy yourself,”
he said.
“I realized that after X-Men, I stopped doing those kinds of bigger, blockbuster- type films. I purposely went away from that big machine because I didn’t want to be an unhappy cog.”
Star-Studded Cast and a New Chapter
In Avengers: Doomsday, Cumming will reunite with his X2 co-stars Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden, all returning to their iconic superhero roles. The film’s impressive ensemble also features Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Chris Hemsworth, Channing Tatum, Simu Liu, Paul Rudd, Lewis Pullman, and Sebastian Stan, with even more big names expected to join the lineup.
For Cumming, this new chapter is both a homecoming and a chance to rewrite the past, embracing the opportunity to revisit a character and a genre that once left him with mixed feelings. His journey from Scotland to Hollywood, and now back into the Marvel universe, continues to surprise even him.