X-Files Creator Says He’s “Looking Forward” to Ryan Coogler’s Reboot

After Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) were brought back in a 2016 revival of The X-Files, another reimagining of the cult classic is now in the works. This time around, the show is being produced by Ryan Coogler, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Marvel’s Black Panther franchise. Though little is known about Coogler’s version, X-Files creator Chris Carter says he’s looking forward to seeing the new iteration.

“It’s interesting, people say, ‘Aren’t you possessive of it?’ And I say, ‘No, I’m looking forward to seeing what somebody else does with it,’” Carter said in a new interview with Inverse. The writer went on to say he and Coogler had a good chat with Fox in which Carter gave his blessing for Coogler to pitch new ideas for the show.

“No matter what, he’s got a hard job,” Carter added. “Casting is a hard job. Mounting it is a hard job. All the problems that I dealt with are going to be his problems.”

Are Scully and Mulder in the X-Files reboot?

It’s likely Coogler’s take on the series will be without Mulder and Scully given Duchovny told us last year he doesn’t intend to reprise the role if Anderson isn’t on the show. Anderson has sinsce said she doesn’t plan on returning to another revival of the series.

“I don’t know. I’ve never really considered that. For me, it was always there’s no show unless it’s Chris and Gillian, so I don’t know,” Duchovny said at the time. “Again, I don’t want to have to think about that, because it’s not something that I necessarily need in my life, to go do that. I think at this point, I mean, there might be another iteration of the actual show without either of us. I’m not sure. Or there could be a cartoon. There are many ways to go about it. But personally, for me, the X-Files that I’m involved in consists of Chris Carter, myself, and Gillian, so I haven’t spent time trying to think about a different version of that, and I don’t know that I will.”

“It just feels like such an old idea. I’ve done it, I did it for so many years, and it also ended on such an unfortunate note,” Anderson shared with Variety. “In order to even begin to have that conversation [about another season] there would need to be a whole new set of writers and the baton would need to be handed on for it to feel like it was new and progressive. So yeah, it’s very much in the past.”

You can stream all eleven seasons of The X-Files on Hulu now.