"The real story behind dropping Nightcrawler from the current script are two reasons:  One being that the studio looked at the number of X-Men that were going to be in this new story and it was just too many to fit in.The producers really wanted new heroes like Beast to be given their own screen time as this is the first X-Men Movie they are in, and between the new heroes being added to the story and looking at how much the budget was going to be, something had to give. Nightcrawler's absense will not be explained, nor will the part be recasted." says scooper BA.

"Also despite what you might have heard on the web, Not everyone has yet said "Yes" to a return for X3.  The studio does want James Marsden to return as Cyclops and there have been talks of getting his Superman shoot over sooner so that he can get to Canada in time for shooting this August."

"Also the part of Gambit has yet to be cast.  Yes, he is still in the script, but no one has been cast in the part.  I think they are close to signing someone for the part, but it is cutting things close to wire as there are barely two months left to get the movie ready both in casting and in readings so that everyone knows what the final script is all about."