Chris Carter Teases More ‘X-Files’ Without Gillian Anderson

The debut of Season 11 of The X-Files has been bittersweet, as fans are excited to see Mulder and Scully on new adventures, yet the end of the season also marks Gillian Anderson‘s departure from the franchise. Creator Chris Carter has regularly said that without Scully, the show wouldn’t continue, yet new comments seem to tease he might have had a change of heart.

“I think that certainlyThe X-Files has more life in it, there are more stories to tell, with Gillian or without,” Carter shared with Digital Spy. “I’m sorry to see her go, I’ve never actually considered doing this show without her, so is this the end? It’s the end of something, I don’t know if it’s the beginning of something new. But certainly we will have to all put our heads together and figure out where to go from here.”

While news of Anderson’s departure may have been a disappointment, it didn’t necessarily come as a surprise to Carter, given that the series began 25 years ago.

“I wasn’t aware when she announced it that she was going to say it, although for quite a while I’ve wondered how long David [Duchovny] and Gillian really wanted to do this show after doing it for 25 years,” Carter confessed. “They’ve played these characters, considering all the material that ended up on the cutting room floor, for probably 6-7,000 hours of their lives. That’s a whole lot of time and so considering that and considering that they’re still relatively young folk, I’m sure they have other things they want to do.”

The idea of this season being the final episodes in the series originated with Carter’s comments during a Reddit AMA earlier this year.

“For me, the show has always been Mulder & Scully. So the idea of doing the show without her isn’t something I’ve ever had to consider,” Carter confirmed. “Was her character given a proper goodbye? I think you will want to sit down and watch the series finale very carefully.”

Those comments seemed to conflict with what he had said last October, which seem more in line with his current outlook of the series.

“There are no plans beyond this, but, as I tell people, that I believe this is true, is that there’s a lot of life still left in the show,” Carter confessed. “Lots of stories to tell. As long as there’s stories to tell, it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t go on.”

You can catch The X-Files Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM ET on Fox.

[H/T Digital Spy]