The Scottish star said he, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and more have stayed friends after being &34;so traumatized&34; by the mutant film. Alan Cumming says he and his X2 costars are 'bonded in trauma' from experience shooting film The Scottish star said he, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and more have stayed friends after being &34;so traumatized&34; by the mutant film. By Ryan Coleman :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RyanColemanauthorphoto0081ce8f0254478080f35972c433877b.

The Scottish star said he, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and more have stayed friends after being "so traumatized" by the mutant film.

Alan Cumming says he and his X2 costars are 'bonded in trauma' from experience shooting film

The Scottish star said he, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, and more have stayed friends after being "so traumatized" by the mutant film.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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May 4, 2026 8:08 a.m. ET

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Halle Berry and Alan Cumming in 'X2'. Credit:

Moviestore/Shutterstock

- Alan Cumming says he's "bonded in trauma" with his *X2: X-Men United *costars.

- The *Traitors *host said he and costars like Ian McKellen, James Marsden, and Rebecca Romijn were "so traumatized" by the experience that they've stayed friends.

- Several members of the *X2 *cast are set to reunite on the upcoming *Avengers: Doomsday*.

Alan Cumming is keeping it real regarding his *X-Men** *past.

The Scottish star recently opened up about the "trauma" he and his *X2: X-Men United** *castmates endured while shooting the super-mutant sequel, which premiered in 2003.

"It's one of those films where I think we all were so traumatized we were bonded in trauma, so we stayed in touch," Cumming noted while speaking with PEOPLE at the TriBeCa ball at the New York Academy of Art on April 20.

Alan Cumming in 'X-Men 2' as Nightcrawler.

Moviestore/Shutterstock

Cumming and several of his *X-Men *franchise alums will soon appear in *Avengers: Doomsday*, the first new *Avengers *entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019's blockbuster *Avengers: Endgame*.

"The ones that I did reunite with, I've seen them since," he shared. "I also didn't reunite with that many because we did it all sort of separately; it was a bit of a modern way of doing things."

Cumming then called out the specific actors from *X2*'s expansive ensemble that he's stayed close with.

"I'm very chummy with Ian [McKellen], I've seen Rebecca [Romijn] over the years. Patrick [Stewart], I've seen quite a lot. Jimmy [Marsden], I've seen a lot of them actually," he shared.

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The sequel to 2000's franchise kickstarter *X-Men*, *X2 *reunited Romijn, McKellen, Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, and Famke Janssen, and introduced Cumming's Nightcrawler.

Cumming and others associated with the film have previously spoken about trauma the cast endured on the set of the multimillion dollar production helmed by the disgraced Bryan Singer.

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Singer was sued in 2017 for allegedly raping a 17-year-old boy in 2003. Singer denied the allegations and settled the case in 2019. But he was hit with more allegations of sexual misconduct with underage boys that year, which he also denied.

Reports began to emerge of the extraordinary difficulty the cast of the early *X-Men *films had with their director, including one 2020 allegation that the cast of *X2 *threatened to quit en masse if Singer didn't improve on-set conditions.

Berry even named names in a February interview with **, proudly recalling the day she "got to tell Bryan Singer just where to go and how to get there."

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Published: May 4, 2026 at 03:38PM on Source: MORNING MAG

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