David Duchovny Comments On The X-Files Revival

The New York Times caught up with David Duchovny and asked him about the recently announced news of The X-Files being revived as a 6-part mini-series on Fox.

Many called it a cult show, but that’s a misconception. It won 16 Emmys and at time was Fox’s most watched television series. It peaked at number 11 for most watched shows in its 1997-1998 season.

NY Times began their interview by asking Duchovny if he has been hiding since Fox made the announcement. “No I haven’t been hiding,” Duchovny replied. “All the good things are good. The good things are working with Chris and Gillian again, and getting to do this show again and see what we’ve got. I’m as curious as anybody else. I’m amazed that there’s still an appetite for it and I’m touched. I think the frame of the show is so expansive and so unique and so influential, that it should feel present.”

The show began as a monster-of-the-week series and then evolved into something more by the time season three came along. “It kind of introduced specialized knowledge, though you didn’t have to do homework to watch the show,” Duchovny explained. “They were always kind of juggling about what people needed to know, especially when we made the movies. Can we get somebody in who’s never seen this? And I’m sure we’ll have to juggle that again with this iteration of it.”

Will The X-Files revival be a serial or a movie of the week? “We’re gonna do both,” Duchovny said. “I’m pretty sure it’s gonna begin and end with the mythology. But I really don’t know.”

He says the revival will film in Vancouver. When he gets on set will he be nervous? “I think I’ll be nervous on the day,” he said. “When I’m in a scene with Gillian, I think we’ll both be like, this is so weird. And I think we’ve both gotten better as we’ve gotten older, so how do we bring that to bear on these characters? If I were to look back at the first or second year of the show, I wouldn’t try to act like that guy. I’m capable of doing more. She’s capable of doing more. It’ll be interesting to see how we keep the characters the same but also the actors are better.”

He added, “The interesting thing about Mulder is nominally he is law enforcement but he never solved one case in nine years. So he’s the worst F.B.I. agent of all time.”