Capping off days of incessant rumors and years of slowly percolating buzz, FOX made it official on Tuesday (March 24) morning: “The X-Files” is coming back to TV.
The landmark sci-fi-tinged conspiracy drama, which ran 202 episodes on FOX between 1993 and 2002, will resume production in Summer 2015 on a six-episode event series. FOX will announce additional details, specifically a premiere date, later.
For now, what we know is that the key pieces of the “X-Files” puzzle are all back, specifically creator and executive producer Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.
“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” Carter blurbs. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”
The formal announcement came courtesy of Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group, who also shepherded the show in their days at 20th Century Fox TV.
“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,” Newman and Walden state. “'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.”
While generally remembered as a cult-y favorite, “The X-Files” spent two seasons among the Top 15 shows on TV, after surviving and eventually thriving in an initial three-season run on Fridays. And bucking the [entirely incorrect] contention that genre shows usually struggle with the TV Academy, “The X-Files” earned 62 Emmy nominations, including four for Outstanding Drama Series, and won 16 Emmys, including a 1997 win for Gillian Anderson.
The series was followed by 1998's “The X-Files: Fight The Future,” which took in nearly $84 million domestic and $189 million worldwide, and 2008's far less successful “The X-Files: I Want To Believe,” which took in only $21 million domestic and $68.37 million worldwide.
Duchovny and Anderson have gone back and forth over the years in terms of interest in bringing “X-Files” back in a TV form or in any form. As recently as 2013, I sat at the back of Ballroom 20 at Comic-Con and, when the possibility of a “24”-style limited reboot was brought up, Anderson blurted out “No!” before adding “But a film would be great.” By last fall, her tune had already changed and now it seems like everybody is game.
NBC is, of course, staging its own Duchovny/Anderson reunion of sorts by pairing Duchovny's “Aquarius” with Anderson's “Hannibal” on Thursday nights this summer.
Stay tuned for more details.
Psyched?