The X-Files May Be Secretly Coming Back To The Big Screen

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 20 seconds ago

It’s a very interesting time to be an X-Files fan right now. Next month, Chris Carter will be releasing a director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want To Believe, which is generally considered the second worst thing in the franchise (the worst thing was that crappy revival).  But what really has the fandom excited is that the entire series is getting rebooted, with Ryan Coogler serving as showrunner. After all, this isn’t just anybody bringing a beloved series back to life; it’s the Oscar-winning writer and director behind the modern horror classic, Sinners. If there’s anybody who can restore The X-Files to its former glory, it’s this guy. 

And make no mistake, restoration is desperately needed. The original X-Files series took a nosedive after Season 5, eventually ending with one of the worst finales in television history. The second film was a critical and commercial flop, and the revival was bad enough that it should be classified as a war crime. However, Coogler has the passion, drive, and (most importantly) the talent to restore this spooky series to its former luster. It helps that he’s gone all-out: the showrunner shot the pilot on 65mm film, and he’s now considering giving this first episode a theatrical release.

The Dream Of The ’90s Is Alive On Hulu

Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files replaces David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson entirely. Instead, our pair of erstwhile FBI agents will be played by Himesh Patel and Danielle Deadwyler. This show has its own unique canon, one in which the X-Files had previously been established and, later, shut down. These new agents are tasked with reopening the division and exploring various unexplained phenomena. The show will be exclusive to Hulu and doesn’t yet have a fixed release date, though it could drop on the streaming platform as early as late 2026.

When it does, it’s going to look absolutely fabulous. That’s because Coogler shot the pilot episode on 65mm film, which is a major rarity for television. Typically, things shot in this high a quality are reserved for the big screen, and the showrunner is reportedly considering giving the X-Files reboot pilot a theatrical release. Right now, Hulu is reportedly on the fence about doing this, especially because they have only commissioned a pilot and not yet ordered an entire series. If the pilot makes it to theaters, you’ll want to see it on the biggest screen possible because Coogler hired Oscar-winning cinematographer and Sinners collaborator Autumn Durald Arkapaw to shoot the first episode.

Will The X-Files Reboot Get Canceled?

Whether the X-Files reboot gets a series order depends on how well Coogler can impress the Hulu execs. As fans of the Slayer know all too well, the powers that be at the streaming platform didn’t like the initial cut of the highly anticipated Buffy reboot, requiring reshoots. Those reshoots did not impress them, and the show ended up getting canceled altogether. After the success of Sinners, Coogler has a lot of star power and momentum going for him, but that may not be enough. After all, the canceled Buffy series was also a reboot of a highly popular genre show from the ‘90s, spearheaded by another Oscar winner: Eternals director Chloé Zhao.

Of course, the Buffy series died in large part because it was difficult to create a reboot that matched the consistently high quality of the original show. That’s not going to be a problem with The X-Files, though: the original show diminished in quality, and after that, all we got was a terrible movie and an even worse, briefly lived revival. Fans have spent years hoping to get a truly great new incarnation of this once-great show. Is Ryan Coogler the man to give it to us? As Spooky Mulder himself might say, I want to believe.