The truth is out there somewhere on Ryan Coogler’s planned The X-Files reboot. The Black Panther director’s next project, Sinners, will bring twin Michael B. Jordans to the big screen soon, but last year’s The X-Files clues dropped by original series creator Chris Carter are still looming.
The long-lived 1990s FOX series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI special agents (believer Fox Mulder and skeptic Dana Scully, respectively) launched a few movies and ran for eleven collective seasons. The sentimentality still runs high for that show, and remakes and reboots of beloved IP remains a controversial topic even while considering the recent successes of Amazon’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Netflix’s Cobra Kai. Those projects nailed the right angle of reentry (the first choosing a reimagining and the second favoring a sequel approach), so it’s certainly possible for The X-Files to be successfully revamped as well with Coogler in charge.
That is, if this reboot is still a thing.
Is Ryan Coogler’s The X-Files Reboot Still Happening?
Ultimately, no answer exists for “yes” or “no.”
Coogler has been remarkably quiet on the project since Chris Carter spoke out (in an Inverse interview) last April to declare that he “just spoke with a young man” (Coogler), “who is going to remount ‘The X-Files’ with a diverse cast.” Carter added that Coogler had “good ideas,” and he further declared “No matter what, he’s got a hard job,” not only on the casting and mounting fronts but also because these days, “Everything’s a conspiracy… No one knows what the truth is. It’s completely subjective and relative now.”
Carter isn’t wrong. The X-Files would have to walk a delicate line with IRL events, similar to what The Boys does in butting up against reality while also effectively satirizing events that feel like satire in and of themselves. Additionally, Coogler has numerous projects on his near-future plate, including bringing Ironheart and Eyes of Wakanda to Disney+ as a producer. He’s busy.
Still, Coogler has been working through a five-year deal with Walt Disney Television, which would help facilitate the reboot’s official greenlighting following the Disney acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The X-Files reboot could, in fact, end up being one of the FX shows that will stream exclusively on Hulu, like Alien: Earth coming later this year.
Now if this reboot really happens, we can probably count out David Duchovny for a Mulder reprisal, as he told Screenrant, “It seems to be a whole separate project. I wish them luck.” So no autoerotic asphyxiation death cameo? Got it.
Gillian Anderson, on the other hand, would be down to “pop in” and has called Coogler a “brilliant, brilliant director.” Fingers crossed.
