“THE X-FILES” RETURNS TO FOX

Emmy Award-winning Pop Culture Phenomenon
From Chris Carter Is Back as Six-Episode Event Series

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson to Reprise Their Roles as
FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully
 

Thirteen years after the original series run, FOX has ordered the next mind-bending chapter of THE X-FILES, a thrilling, six-episode event series which will be helmed by creator/executive producer Chris Carter with stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson re-inhabiting their roles as iconic FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. This marks the momentous return of the Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning pop culture phenomenon, which remains one of the longest-running sci-fi series in network television history.
 
The announcement was made today by Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group and Chris Carter, creator and executive producer of THE X-FILES. Production on THE X-FILES event series is set to begin in summer 2015. Further details remain under wraps and will be announced at a later date.
 
“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” said Carter. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”
 
“We had the privilege of working with Chris on all nine seasons of THE X-FILES – one of the most rewarding creative experiences of our careers – and we couldn’t be more excited to explore that incredible world with him again,” remarked Newman and Walden. “THE X-FILES was not only a seminal show for both the studio and the network, it was a worldwide phenomenon that shaped pop culture – yet remained a true gem for the legions of fans who embraced it from the beginning. Few shows on television have drawn such dedicated fans as THE X-FILES, and we’re ecstatic to give them the next thrilling chapter of Mulder and Scully they’ve been waiting for.”

THE X-FILES originally premiered in September 1993.  Over the course of its nine-season run, the influential series went from breakout sci-fi favorite to massive global hit, and became one of the most successful television dramas of all time. The show, which earned 16 Emmy Awards, five Golden Globes and a Peabody Award, follows FBI special agents Scully (Anderson) and Mulder (Duchovny) as they investigate unexplained cases – “X-Files” – for which the only answers involve paranormal phenomena.
 
Produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Ten Thirteen Productions, THE X-FILES is created and executive-produced by Chris Carter.

While I have always been an advocate of Fox bringing back The X-Files for a third feature film, this is really just as great, if not greater, since the writers will have more running time allotted to them to tell their story. My personal preference would be to do the six episodes, and then go out with a bang with a third theatrical film to stay consistent with the fact that the show has already made the transition to the big screen, and at least did a bang up job with the first film, The X-Files: Fight the Future (the second film has grown on me a lot since it was first released though). But since this the limited run series is what we’re getting, and because TV has taken on a more big-scale theatrical tone and look anyway (due largely in part to The X-Files) with so many shows like Lost, Fringe, The Walking Dead, etc. – this limited run of The X-Files definitely has the potential to wrap up those loose ends left by the series and give us the story we all wanted for a third film, but actually be able to take the time to tell it well instead of having to cram it all into a 2-hour film.

My only hope is that these six episodes will not have any sort of stand-alone, monster-of-the-week episodes. While those episodes were also very, very memorable from the series, they were really the filler for the stories that ultimately mattered to the characters, and the overall “alien colonization mythology” established over the course of the original nine seasons of the series. After all, the end of the series gave a date for alien colonization to occur, and that date has passed in the real world. So these new episodes must be devoted to wrapping up the mythology once and for all in some form and give the fans what we have all been waiting for since 2002, and it only makes sense that this story will need all six episodes to do it justice. There’s still a lot that needs to happen, and stand-alone episodes would only get in the way.

All we can gather about the plot of the limited series at this point officially is that Mulder and Scully will be returning to the FBI. In I Want to Believe, Scully was a doctor, and Mulder simply lived with her in hiding after what happened at the end of season nine. So it appears that after helping out the FBI in that film, they are able to return to work (hopefully to stop alien colonization from happening). The duo’s return to the Bureau actually happens in the fifth issue of the Season 10 comic series put out by IDW in which X-Files creator Chris Carter served as executive producer and co-writer. Will this new limited series pull directly from the Season 10 comics? My guess is no, but perhaps elements from the story will cross over. Who knows?

We can only wait and see. I cannot wait to get all the juicy details this summer when production begins! Want to bet Breaking Bad creator and X-Files writer Vince Gilligan will be involved? According to The X-Files Lexicon, he at least wants to be, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox is eying the successful TV writer/producer to pen one or more of the episodes as we speak. But that’s just speculation at this point…

In the meantime, what are you waiting for?! Start re-watching the series on Netflix now!

Update from The Daily Beast:

Looks like stand-alone episodes will factor in to the limited series after all. While this can still work, I’m not as confident this limited series will wrap up the mythology successfully. But we’re not the writers either, so you never know. Plus, Carter does seem to indicate that the possibility of a third film is still out there… just like “the truth.” But as of right now, we’re going to be getting a mix of stand-alone and alien mythology episodes in the new limited run series.

Head on over to The Daily Beast to read the full Chris Carter interview!

Update #2 from X-Files News:

A more in depth interview with Chris Carter can be found over at X-Files News, and believe me, it’s worth the read!