Up to this point, every episode of The X-Files has first been broadcast on Fox, but it doesn’t look like that will be the case for the series revival / reboot that Creed, Black Panther, and Sinners director Ryan Coogler has been developing. A while back, it was announced that Coogler’s take on the concept has received a pilot order from the Hulu streaming service, with Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) and Himesh Patel (Yesterday) in the lead roles and Jennifer Yale (The Copenhagen Test) joining the project as showrunner. Now, Deadline reports that eight actors have signed on for guest roles: Amy Madigan (Weapons), Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs), Ben Foster (Hell or High Water), Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs), Lochlyn Munro (Freddy vs. Jason), Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves), Joel D. Montgrand (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Sofia Grace Clifton (Station 19).
Details on the characters these actors will be playing have not been revealed.
What do we know about The X-Files reboot?
The original run of The X-Files lasted for nine seasons, airing on Fox from 1993 to 2002. There were two revival seasons, which aired on Fox in 2016 and 2018. There have also been two feature films: 1998’s The X-Files and 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Three years ago, The X-Files creator Chris Carter spilled the beans during an interview on the show On the Coast, revealing that a reboot of The X-Files was in the works, with Ryan Coogler at the helm. A while back, Coogler confirmed to Last Podcast on the Left, “I’m working on X-Files. That’s what’s immediately next… I’ve been excited about that one for a long time and I’m fired up to get back to it, and that, you know, some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f***ing scary.”
Coogler also said that he has spoken with Gillian Anderson, who starred in the original series as Agent Dana Scully, about the project. “She’s incredible, and fingers-crossed there. When I spoke to her, she was finishing [Tron: Ares] up. But, yeah, but we’re gonna try to make something really great… and really be something for the real X-Files fans, you know what I’m saying? And, maybe, find some new ones.” Anderson has said that the pilot script is “really good” and she thinks the new show is going to be cool.
Coogler has previously let it be known that he was inspired to make Creed because “My father was a big Rocky fan. I’ve been watching these movies as long as I can remember, because he was obsessed with them. We would watch Rocky II and he would cry and stand up and cheer at the same spots, every time.” So when the subject of The X-Files came up during a recent conversation with Variety, he said, “Like my relationship with Rocky with my dad, The X-Files is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me, so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.“
It was during an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Coogler said, “It wouldn’t be X-Files if we didn’t do both: we intend on having both monsters of the week and also the overarching conspiracy.“
New Agents
Coming our way from Onyx Collective and 20th Television, the new The X-Files will center on two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.
Yale executive produces alongside Chris Carter as well as Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Zinzi Coogler of Proximity Media. The company’s Simone Harris is a co-executive producer. Ryan Coogler will be writing and directing the pilot episode.
What do you think of the lineup of actors taking on guest roles in the reboot of The X-Files? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
