MOVIE NEWS – It is now official that the legendary sci-fi series is returning, and the lead has already been found. The catch is that it is neither Mulder nor Scully. The comeback itself is welcome news, but bringing in a new detective duo has immediately raised doubts for many viewers – and not without reason.

It is unclear whether Sinners (2025) gaining major traction in the race for the 98th Academy Awards had anything to do with the timing, but after months of uncertainty, one thing is finally confirmed: a new The X-Files series is heading to Hulu (Disney+), built around two new investigators, one of them being Danielle Deadwyler (Carry-On), whom some had already pointed to as a possible spiritual successor to Scully.

The news was confirmed a few hours ago by THR, which also reported that Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther and the vampire horror film mentioned above, will write and direct the pilot episode, while Jennifer Yale (See, The Copenhagen Test, etc.) will take over as showrunner. Original series creator Chris Carter will remain attached as an executive producer, though without direct creative involvement. It is not yet known whether any writers from the iconic sci-fi show will return for this new chapter. Hopefully, some of them will.

The X-Files was always about those two

Personally, I like the choice of Danielle Deadwyler. She has real experience in science-fiction films and TV, and she is far from an unknown face in the industry. The issue – and I am clearly not the only one who feels this way – is that The X-Files brand is deeply tied to Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. After all, we are talking about the longest-running sci-fi TV series in history, one that outlasted Stargate SG-1 and Smallville, also spawned two feature films with the original cast, and across 218 episodes rarely gave the impression that anyone could realistically replace them.

Now 20th Century Studios and Disney have decided to take exactly that step, and fans are split on what this could lead to: “I’m biased: The X-Files was Mulder and Scully and the ’90s atmosphere. This doesn’t have either of those things. So it’ll just be another X-Files-inspired show. Maybe new viewers will like it and it’ll be successful, but it can’t recreate the magic of the original series. Although, well, that’s just my opinion” – wrote Dimitra111 in a heavily upvoted Reddit comment, and it is a view many people can understand.

I agree with that, too. Not only because of Mulder and Scully, but because of the setting itself. While one of the biggest fears many of us had – that the new version would go fully serialized and abandon the famous “monster of the week” formula – was already addressed by Ryan Coogler in an earlier interview, it is also true that 2026, in the middle of the digital era and the AI boom, creates an atmosphere in which the classic The X-Files might no longer fit in quite the same way.

That said, it could also be the right moment to try something different. In the early 2000s, we got the highly recommended Fringe, which was very much its own thing and leaned harder into science fiction, yet still proved there was room on television for stories built around strange phenomena. I would rather choose optimism here and hope that The X-Files can win over millions of new fans.

And a different lead pair does not automatically mean we will never see our favorite FBI duo again, whose story, incidentally, wrapped in 2018. The short synopsis makes it clear that this is not a reboot but a continuation: “Two FBI agents, both with brilliant careers but radically different personalities, form an unexpected bond when they are assigned to a long-closed division dedicated to cases involving unexplained phenomena.” Let us hope the relaunch lands well.

Source: 3DJuegos