The new “X-Files” mini-season is almost here — and with anticipation building, FOX has released a 21-minute sneak peek at the forthcoming episodes that covers Mulder and Scully's reunion, new cast members, creepy crawlies and big twists on the old mythology. Too busy to watch the whole thing? Here are 9 things we learned from the new clip.
1. The first and last episodes are “mythology” episodes, while the rest are standalone (a.k.a. “Monster of the Week”) episodes.
“I knew that there was a big interest from the fans to see more monster stuff,” says Anderson. “But also, we have a big fandom based around the mythology.”
2. One of the standalone episodes will be in more of a comedic vein than the others.
“There's gonna be standalones, and of those standalones there's gonna be one that's funnier than the others,” says Duchovny.
3. Mulder and Scully will be broken up at the beginning of the series.
When we last saw the couple in “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” they were in a romantic relationship.
4. Joel McHale is playing a Glenn Beck-esque conservative talk show host and conspiracy theorist.
“He is very conservative, but his ideas about conspiracy theories match up exactly with Mulder's,” says McHale, who Carter claims was cast based on his 2014 White House Correspondents' routine.
5. Mulder and Scully's son William, whom they gave up for adoption, will be a factor in the new episodes.
“We were always very vague about how that happened since theres was no apparent time or place that child could've been conceived, but it becomes a larger question as we move forward,” says Carter.
“There's guilt, definitely, for giving up a child, even if it was for its own safety,” adds Duchovny.
6. There's a UFO crash shown in the first episode that “may or may not be Roswell.”
“We probably made a bigger [UFO] than has ever been made for TV,” says production designer Mark Freeborn. “The saucer was 50 feet in diameter.”
7. We'll see a different, more physically capable aspect of Mulder in the new episodes.
“We see a side of Mulder we haven't seen before,” teases stunt coordinator Melissa Stubbs. “He busts out some fight skills.”
8. There's a “Mer-Man”-type creature involved in at least one episode.
“I always wanted a more classic, Universal Horror, Creature from the Black Lagoon type of thing,” says writer-director-producer Darin Morgan of the monster, who also wears white briefs.
9. The first episode will deal with Mulder's personal life, while the last episode will deal with Scully's. Both episodes are titled “My Struggle.”
“I thought why not get into the intimate details of Mulder's life,” said Carter, before adding later: “Episode 6 will also be called 'My Struggle' but it'll be Scully's struggle, and you'll see the details of her struggle through her own eyes.”
“The X-Files” premieres January 24 on FOX.