The X-Files is returning to television for a brand new batch of episodes in the not-too-distant future, and the trailer promises to deliver plenty of Mulder and Scully back in action. While we do know that a lot of focus in Season 11 will be on their absent son, it turns out that another character from The X-Files over the years will get a lot more focus in the new season. The long-suffering Walter Skinner will get more of an origin story than ever before. Actor Mitch Pileggi revealed some of what's in store, saying this:
You're going to find out a lot more about his past. Fans will find out who he is, where he comes from and why he is the way he is.
Walter Skinner has been around The X-Files from the very first season, and longtime fans have gotten to know at least a little bit about him. He fought in Vietnam when he was 18-years-old, and his experiences there shaped him in the rest of his life. Skinner also had a wife named Sharon, and he had the unfortunate habit of getting in over his head with bad people despite his intentions to do good.
At times an ally and at times an antagonist to Mulder and Scully, Skinner has been a key part of the series to date. Judging by Mitch Pileggi's comments to TVLine, we'll find out much more about the Skinman in Season 11, which should be great news for fans who didn't get as much Skinner as they wanted out of the six episodes of Season 10.
In fact, The X-Files Season 11 is giving Skinner an origin episode of his own. The sixth episode of the 10-episode season will be all about Skinner and the man he is when not attempting to keep Mulder and Scully under control. The trailer points toward some strife as the intrepid agents lose their trust in him, but Pileggi promises that Skinner ultimately "is their champion."
After all that Skinner did for the dynamic duo, ranging from selling his soul to the Cigarette-Smoking Man to try and save Scully from her cancer to pledging his support for the X-Files unit after Mulder's abduction and Scully's pregnancy, it will probably take something pretty huge for him to lose their trust. Dealings with the Cigarette-Smoking Man are a pretty solid way for folks to alienate Mulder and Scully, as Scully even turned on Monica Reyes in Season 10 when Monica revealed she'd been pressured to help the CSM after Scully left the FBI at the end of Season 9. Incidentally, Monica will be back in Season 11, so maybe we'll get to see her and Skinner together as a pair of former trusted allies whose loyalties are in question.
Personally, the news that we're getting more Skinner in Season 11 has me all the more excited about what's to come. Skinner has been one of the most intriguing characters of the series, and I'll admit that I laugh whenever he's faced with Mulder and Scully dragging him into their ridiculousness over and over again after the past 20+ years. More Skinner can only be a good things.
The X-Files will return for Season 11 at some point in 2018. Hopefully it will answer some of the biggest questions we're still asking about everything that has happened over the years. For what you can watch while we wait for more X, take a gander at our fall TV guide.
