Ryan Coogler is finally ready to turn his talents back toward a special reboot he first made waves with back in 2023. While his newest film, Sinners, is poised to scare the bejesus out of audiences over Easter weekend, the Black Panther director has confirmed that his next project and immediate focus is his reboot of The X-Files. During a chat with Last Podcast on the Left, Coogler shared his excitement for the project and his desire to get back to working on it. Coogler also confirmed he has spoken with the original cast, though he wants to keep his expectations in check.
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time and I’m fired up to get back to it,” Coogler explained in the interview. “Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f—ing scary.”
Coogler also specifically praised Gillian Anderson, calling her “incredible” and noting that he’s keeping his fingers crossed that things will work out. Anderson has already shared her excitement for the project during an interview with the TODAY show on April 3.
“Now, Ryan Coogler, who’s the director of Black Panther, a brilliant, brilliant director, has approached Chris Carter to say that he wants to do a take on it. I cannot think of a better way around for a reboot to happen, I think he’s a bit of a genius,” Anderson said. “There’s a chance it will happen. Whether I am involved in it is a whole other thing, but in his hands … But I am not saying no, because I think he’s really cool, and I think if he did it, it will be done incredibly well, and maybe I’ll pop in for a little somethin’ somethin’.”
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Coogler also got some words of praise for his efforts from X-Files creator Chris Carter, who also showed he’s fully onboard with someone else taking the reins for his creation.
“It’s interesting, people say, ‘Aren’t you possessive of it?’ And I say, ‘No, I’m looking forward to seeing what somebody else does with it,’” Carter told Inverse in 2024. “No matter what, he’s got a hard job … Casting is a hard job. Mounting it is a hard job. All the problems that I dealt with are going to be his problems.”
The original X-Files ran for nine seasons on Fox, with its series finale dropping in May 2002. The X-Files also sparked a pair of films, a self-titled release in 1998 and The X-Files: I Want to Believe a decade later. The first X-Files movie did have a subtitle when it hit theaters: Fight the Future, but it seems to exist more as an extended episode of the series and is only listed as The X-Files online.
The series did return for a revival in 2016, returning for a second revival season in 2018, with David Duchovny and Anderson coming back. Another reunion does seem in the cards for the duo at least, but we’ll have to see where it ends up. Duchovny has said he still loves the show despite tossing a little lukewarm water on the idea back in 2024.
“I don’t know. I’ve never really considered that. For me, it was always there’s no show unless it’s Chris and Gillian, so I don’t know,” Duchovny said. “There are many ways to go about it. But personally, for me, the X-Files that I’m involved in consists of Chris Carter, myself, and Gillian, so I haven’t spent time trying to think about a different version of that, and I don’t know that I will.”
Now that Coogler is thrusting himself back into the work required to bring the series back, it will be interesting to see if the Sinners director can make progress in reviving it with the original duo involved.
Fans can stream The X-Files and its revival seasons on Hulu. You can rent the movies on your favorite platform, but hopefully, you’re checking out Sinners while it is in theaters.
Do you want to see the original cast back for Coogler’s X-Files reboot? Have a different idea for reviving the classic sci-fi series? Let us know in the comments.
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