Thanks to his indigo-coloured skin, the superhero Nightcrawler is almost impossible to spot in the shadows.

That may explain why X-Men director Bryan Singer tweeted an image of Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee as the iconic character – and then promptly deleted it.

"Catch him before he's gone," Singer teased in the now-deleted post.

The sneak peek of Smit-McPhee in full Nightcrawler makeup is the first glimpse into the upcoming X-Men sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse. Production on the film commenced this week.

The image of Nightcrawler, along with a short video clip, were published on the Twitter feed for Singer and Smit-McPhee. Both almost immediately deleted the posts.

Landing the role of Nightcrawler is something of a coup for Smit-McPhee, whose star has been rising in Hollywood for the past several years, notably with a role in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

In Australia, he was seen most recently in the Nine Network drama Gallipoli.

The character of Nightcrawler – real name: Kurt Wagner – is a mutant with the power of teleportation, near-invisibility, superhuman speed and adhesive hands and feet.

He was created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum in 1975 as part of the X-Men series.

Smit-McPhee is playing a "younger version" of Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse. An adult version of the character appeared in the film X2, played by actor Alan Cumming.

X-Men: Apocalypse also stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne.

X-Men: Apocalypse will be released in May, 2016.