Great News - X-Files Returns To TV!

[The Unknown Poster]

The X-Files Returns to Fox After 13-Year Break

 

You can believe

 

The truth is right here, and it’s amazing: After 13 years off the air, The X-Files is officially returning to Fox as a limited series.

Stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back on board, along with creator Chris Carter.

 

“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” Carter said. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”

 

The only part of this huge news you might not like: There are only six episodes planned.

 

“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,” said Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of Fox Television Group. “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.”

 

The sci-fi procedural classic first premiered in 1993. It became one of Fox’s first major breakout hits and a pop-culture sensation that went on to last nine seasons and spawn two feature films. The show also earned 16 Emmys and helped pave the way for other prime-time sci-fi shows like ABC’s Lost and Fox’s Fringe. Once again, the series will follow FBI special agents Scully (Anderson) and Mulder (Duchovny) as they investigate unexplained cases.

 

Carter’s “six stories” comment seems to suggest the series will embrace the show’s original format of focusing on stand-alone mysteries rather than delving into the serialized alien conspiracy mythology that dominated some of the show’s episodes and its first feature film (at least, that’s what I want to believe).

 

The move follows Fox reviving another one of its hits, 24, for a shortened run last year. The X-Files deal has been in the works since at least January when executives told reporters at the network’s press tour presentation that they were trying to revive the show.

 

The X-Files will start production this summer. There’s no premiere date yet, and no word if other cast members from the original series will return.

 

This article originally appeared on EW.com.

[The Unknown Poster]

I'm very excited by this.  I loved the X-Files.  It was cant miss programming for young me.  When the gf admitted she had never seen it (but loved DD from Californication) I bought the entire series and movies and we watched them from beginning til end.  Sure, the show begun to collapse under the weight of it's own mythology and they had to keep revealing the truth, then changing the truth, then lying, then revealing etc etc but ultimately, it was historic television and I loved it.

 

I've been saying for years that X-Files was an obvious choice for a "re-boot" with the main actors all still happy to do television.  If I'm FOX, I'm using this limited run to set up a potential new regular series with new leads and a few of the originals as guest stars (use Skinner as the connecting character).

Can't wait!

[blueandgoldguy]

Cool.  I'm excited yet a little bit hesitant.  The first 5, maybe 6 seasons were great television.  This is before the mythology of the show started to collapse on itself as you stated.  After that, it became somewhat nonsensical and inconsistent.  With the exception of a few episodes, the final 2 seasons were at best mediocre.  The show never would have lasted past season 2, if the quality of writing and choice of actors from those final 2 seasons were present from the beginning.

 

Little spoiler alert for those of you who never watched the original series and are planning to on Netflix or somewhere else...

 

-Carter (the creator) broke so many promises as the series progressed - 1) killed the cigarette smoking-man..twice when he originally stated "you can't kill the devil." 2) Scully and Mulder will never have an intimate relationship - they did, and it was not a one-off.  The relationship appeared to be rekindled in the second movie.  By the way, the second movie was incredibly boring.

 

-moving the series from Vancouver to California - this was precipitated by Duchovny's desires to be closer to his wife, Tea Leoni.  I still remember back in the late-90s people took to calling her Yoko because of this.  Also, remember watching a now somewhat infamous interview with Duchovny prior to the move to Cali stating that in Vancouver it rains like the tropics without the tropics.  Regardless of the motivations of the move, X-files lost many potential spooky settings for the remaining 4 seasons when they left for Cali.  It was the beginning of the end.  Show was losing it's edge and i believe it was lead to the elimination of some recurring actors in the show which leads me to...

 

-killing the shadowy syndicate.  Another nail in the coffin for the show.  I still believe they killed some of these characters because the actors who played them resided in Vancouver and due to certain restrictions (acting in other tv shows or movies), Carter and company found it expedient to eliminate these characters in one fell swoop rather than deal with their travel and time restrictions.  After their elimination and the reformation of a new syndicate under a now somewhat neutered cigarette-smoking man, the stakes just didn't feel as high.

 

-additions of Gish and Patrick.  No chemistry whatsoever.

 

-the big payoff for Mulder's decades long quest to find his sister (with several false discoveries along the was - clones) leads to the discovery that she was "taken into the light" -heaven I presume.  This occurred only a few short months or years after her original abduction so she had been dead for decades.  As a fan, although becoming a little more reluctant a fan of the show at this point, I felt ripped off.  No reconciliation between Mulder and his sister which served as the genesis for Mulder's passion.

 

-Show became increasingly convoluted in the latter seasons.  Introduction of the supersoldiers in the final seasons was entirely unneccessary plot device.The black oil that had mutated into an alien-birthing device in the movie failed to appear after season 6.  The writers chose to ignore it altogether.

 

-cigarette-smoking man telling Mulder he kept him alive all this time to watch him fail.  Uh huh, that sounds like a reasonable explanation and consistent with his character's actions in the 9 seasons preceding this final episode.  Incidentally, CSM was incinerated shortly after saying this.  Looks like the devil can be killed twice.

 

-2012 - the date the alien invasion and colonisation of earth is set as predicted by the Mayans or so sayeth the CSM.  If this is true, than this upcoming 6 part series would have to take place before 2012..or maybe the writers will just pretend that never happened too..or write some poorly reasoned explanation for the audience with one or two lines of dialogue..like they glossed over the authorities no longer coming after Mulder in the second movie.

 

Enough ranting from me lol.  We'll see how this turns out.  I'm skeptical but hopeful it will be better than the final seasons of the original series.

[The Unknown Poster]

I have little doubt CSM will be in it.

Anabeth Gish and Robert Patrick are both great in everything else. Though I absolutely love Patrick so I enjoyed him in x-Files. He brought a more logical no nonsense attitude that was sometimes missing when the characters would just go along with the usual goofiness of the show.

Where it started losing me, besides being hard to keep it all straight was that they lied about the truth so many times that you couldn't believe anything and thus there could never be a pay off because you couldn't trust it. And that killed the emotional connection for the viewer.

Generally I'm fine with the idea of Mulder and Scully getting together but for the show it really shouldn't have happened. The natural progression of their relationship should have been attraction, romantic love, and then a platonic love that transcends a romantic relationship. I could see Mulder being in love with Scully but she should never have been in love with him.

[tacklewasher]

I don't know. The series dragged on and the movies were terrible. I can't see this re-boot working, especially if they only signed for 6 episodes. The magic of the early seasons is long dead.

 

Hollywood needs to come up with something new.

 

I'll watch it (I watch any crappy Sci-Fi) but I'm not holding out much hope for it being good.

[The Unknown Poster]

I don't know. The series dragged on and the movies were terrible. I can't see this re-boot working, especially if they only signed for 6 episodes. The magic of the early seasons is long dead.

 

Hollywood needs to come up with something new.

 

I'll watch it (I watch any crappy Sci-Fi) but I'm not holding out much hope for it being good.

I thought X-Files was an easy brand to bring back.  The show was never better than when it did cool "mystery of the week" episodes.  Even if they had brought it back without the original actors, it could have worked.  Enough time has passed for there to be acceptable motivations for some young FBI agent to come across Mulder's dusty files in his basement office.

 

The genre is still popular, perhaps even experiencing a resurgence.  If I was pitching it, I'd have Mulder as a recluse, Scully still working in the medical field, maybe at Quantico.  You have a young FBI agent come along (a woman) with the same interest that Mulder once had, perhaps even a "child" from the original series that interacted with them and was inspired to join the FBI.  Scully sees in her the same drive as Mulder and helps her connect with him.  He, ofcourse, is now a bitter pessimist and tells her to leave it all alone, that it will ruin her, that it's not worth it.  yadda yadda yadda,  Mulder gets back in the game and "passes the torch" to the new agent.  Life goes on.

 

Lots of weirdness in the world to explore.

[Fraser]

now they just need to bring back unsolved mysteries.

[The Unknown Poster]

now they just need to bring back unsolved mysteries.

Another great show.  I wonder if the rise of the internet and the ease of getting information on mysteries hurt the show.  It had to have been awfully cheap to produce.

 

Show used to scare me as a child.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

I stopped watching after the movie which i thought was great btw.

 

But if they gonna finish off the show then they should have Mulder picked up by the aliens. Spoiler?

[The Unknown Poster]

I stopped watching after the movie which i thought was great btw.

 

But if they gonna finish off the show then they should have Mulder picked up by the aliens. Spoiler?

The first movie?  yeah it was good.  It was really like a big budget episode of the series.  The second movie was somewhat mind boggling in that they chose to make it a stand alone story instead of having any link to the mythology.  I know they thought people had moved on but if you cant hook fans to watch it for what it is then why would you hook them to watch it for what it isnt?

 

You cant put the genie back in the bottle but it would be nice if they could sort of retcon some mystery back into it as far as do aliens really exist or is it a government black ops cover for some other nefarious purpose?

 

I used to be a firm believer in aliens.  But then I started suffering from night terrors and sleep paralysis and I can see why come professionals will tell you that every single abduction story is simply an example of that.

[Noeller]

Never watched the show, but saw the first movie and enjoyed it...

[The Unknown Poster]

Now bringing back Full House on Netflix.

[Logan007]

Now bringing back Full House on Netflix.

It is on Netflix...unfortunately.

[The Unknown Poster]

No no a new Full House. With DJ and Kimmy as the central characters and the others as guest stars.

[Noeller]

Also apparently ABC trying to reboot the Muppet Show...

[Logan007]

No no a new Full House. With DJ and Kimmy as the central characters and the others as guest stars.

Uggh...

[The Unknown Poster]

 

No no a new Full House. With DJ and Kimmy as the central characters and the others as guest stars.

Uggh...

 

The thing is, I sort of smiled when i heard this.  Funny what nostalgia can do.  But since it's Netflix, they have the absolute best demo research going.  One can presume old episodes of Full House are widely watched leading them to developing a sequel.  And the premise is easy to transfer, the cast is cheap (most of them).  And its "family viewing" that Netflix wants.

 

I had heard their interest in House of Cards was due to the popularity of Kevin Spacey movies on their service.  And there have long been rumours of Netflix's interest in developing a new Star Trek TV Series due to the popularity of the various series' amongst their viewers. 

 

They can know with a touch of a button exactly what their viewers like to watch, which genre, which actors, which everything and develop to that desire.  I read a story about Orange is the New Black and how no network would ever have done a series where all of the leads are women and yet Netflix' research clearly showed they had an audience that would be interested.

[The Unknown Poster]

Looks like Fox is going all-in on the X-Files revival (and I cant wait).

 

Latino Review:

 

Fox is betting big on the anticipated return of The X-Files. The beloved sci-fi series is getting a 6-episode return event on the network early next year, reuniting stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Agents Mulder and Scully.

 

Word has now come on how the network is prepared to relaunch the series to the largest possible audience. Fox is planning to debut the new X-Files miniseries immediately following the NFL's NFC Championship Game on Sunday, January 24. The NFL always garners stellar ratings, but especially during the playoffs. Giving The X-Files a post-NFC Champsionship berth, then following up it the very next night on Monday at 8PM, is going to give the series an insanely high probability of being a ratings success.

 

The new X-Files miniseries will be guided, once again, by series creator Chris Carter.

[Logan007]

I'm not trying to be a troll, but this is getting ridiculous.  Can't anyone think of anything new?  X-Files starts again, Full house continues, Heroes Reborn is starting again.  None of them reboots, they are all continuations.  But they were all starting to fail nearing their last season(s).  Heroes failed miserably.  X-files just started to lose viewers as the season's went on.  I don't know about Full House but I know for me it became nauseatingly painful to watch the longer it went on.  For example, Joey, instead of doing voices just some of the time for a good laugh, did it non stop because after all...more is better.  Unless they're getting fresh writers (and good ones...I'm looking at you Heroes Reborn), I can't see these shows lasting long.  It's like David and Gillian couldn't find anything else to do because their acting is meh, so they managed to convince someone to start it up again.

[The Unknown Poster]

It's tribute that X-Files began to collapse under the weight of its own mythology. But I've been saying for ages that its ready made for a revival.

Misteries and conspiracies are hot again. The two leads are popular and still look great. And whether we like it or not nostalgia is hot too.

[The Unknown Poster]

****Spoiler Alert****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cast List for X-Files, now shooting in Vancouver:

 

David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Joel McHale, Mitch Pileggi, Annabeth Gish, Nicholas Lea, and William B. Davis.

 

Interesting.  Gish played Agent Reyes on the show.  Lea played Alex Krycek on the show and was shot in the face and killed, later appearing as a ghost.  William Davis is ofcourse, Cancer Man who also died though was never shown dead (his home blew up).  Very disappointed there is no Robert Patrick!