X2: X-Men United is is 20th Century Fox's 2003 sequel to X-Men, both based on the Marvel Comics franchise X-Men.
The new movie finds the Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his team searching for Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) who was recently manipulated into trying to assassinate the President of the United States. The mutant was under the psychic control of another mutant, the son of Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox), who hoped to create a flashpoint event allowing him to escalate his war on mutants. Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine, whose adamantium origins are linked with Stryker. Also returning from the first movie are Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore. New cast includes Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu and Daniel Cudmore.
Bryan Singer returns as director working from a script by Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter.
X2: X-Men United was well received by critics and regarded by fans as one of the best of the X-Men movies. It was followed by X-Men: The Last Stand.
