We have fantastic news for fans of The X-Files this morning. Fox has confirmed that The X-Files will be returning for a brand new run. That's right, not only will fans get new episodes of The X-Files, but Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have also signed on to return. Mulder and Scully are back, bitches.
It’s been 13 years since we’ve actually gotten new episodes of The X-Files, but due to the supernatural procedural element of the drama, there should be plenty of avenues left for the Fox series to explore. It should be easy to come up with enough new content, especially since Fox is only planning to produce six episodes of the new series, which the channel is billing as an "event series." Unfortunately, fans probably would have been happier with more than a six-episode run, but we’ll take what we can get.
It was only recently that we learned Anderson and Duchovny were in talks to return for Fox’s big revival of The X-Files. Duchovny spoke out about being interested several months ago, but yesterday we learned that Anderson was actually in talks to return to the show. At the time, we also found out that some of the writers on the series were in talks to come back, but now there’s even better news. Creator and executive producer Chris Carter will also be back for the show’s next run. He made the big announcement today, alongside Fox Chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman.
While a revival of a series that already had a good run(like The X-Files, which ran for nine seasons on Fox), might come off as a bit desperate, the network has actually had great luck in the ratings with returning programming. Last summer, Fox released 24: Live Another Day, a 12-episode series that put Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) back in the spotlight once more. The show was well-liked and also did quite well in overall viewership for a summer series, so there’s reason to believe The X-Files will achieve a similar level of success, if not better.
Fox currently has no return date set for The X-Files, but production is expected to start this summer, so unless Fox hangs on to the episodes for some time, there’s a good chance we’ll see the show on the air sometime next fall. In the meantime, you can catch Anderson in new episodes of Hannibal this summer. David Duchovny will also next be seen on NBC, in the brand new series Aquarius, which hits the schedule in May. You can check out more midseason return dates, here.
