IP never dies in Hollywood — it just learns to crawl back out of the grave. So, the truth is out there; it can’t stay buried. And in our modern age, it’s also contractual — and if a franchise can be revived, it will be, which is why “X-Files” was always destined to return.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast while promoting “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler drifted into his upcoming “X-Files” revamp — and while he talked about the show’s influence and his plans for balancing monsters-of-the-week with an overarching conspiracy, he also left the door cracked on the big question: whether Mulder and Scully might still have a place in this new version.
Coogler framed “X-Files” as something intimate and foundational, not just IP on a spreadsheet. “That show is what I used to watch with my mom; it’s one of the most beautiful television shows ever made.”
From there, he began discussing lineage — what the “X-Files” drew from, and what his version aimed to carry forward without simply replicating the past. He pointed to Chris Carter’s inspiration, and then to his own, describing the whole thing as a kind of creative relay race across generations of genre obsessives. Coogler said Carter was influenced by the supernatural investigation series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” and that the same impulse drove him: taking something you loved, something that left a mark, and trying to make it your own.
“For me, that’s what it’s all about,” he explained. “When you’re trying to capture something you’re influenced by, and you make something totally new.”
He also positioned “X-Files” as a quiet incubator for modern TV greatness — specifically, the way it helped turn Vince Gilligan from a working writer into a defining voice of the medium. Coogler noted that “X-Files” was the series that elevated Gilligan’s profile, and he added that he’d actually spoken with him and got advice about the job ahead — not just writing episodes, but steering a whole series.
The big structural question — whether this new take leaned serialized or embraced the classic “monster-of-the-week” rhythm — was where Coogler sounded most like he knew exactly what audiences expected, and why. Asked whether the series would be a long-form narrative or a week-to-week mystery, he said it would be both.
“You know, it wouldn’t be ‘X-Files’ if we didn’t have a bit of both,” he explained. “We intend on having both monsters of the week and also the overarching conspiracy, grappling with that. That’s what I’m doing now. ‘[Black] Panther [3]’ comes after that.”
And then came the question everyone actually wanted answered: would Mulder and Scully show up?
Coogler didn’t confirm whether Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny would return, but he also didn’t shut the door. Instead, he played it the way you play it when you’re not trying to lie, but you also weren’t about to blow up your own surprise: he admitted he’d spoken to both actors, expressed genuine admiration, and left the rest floating in the air like a cigarette ember you couldn’t quite stamp out.
“I mean, I can’t… I’m a big fan of Gillian’s, I’m a big fan of David’s,” he demurred. “That’s all I can say.”
Coogler didn’t promise Mulder and Scully. But he didn’t banish them either. And in a franchise built on paranoia, possibility, and the thrill of not knowing what’s behind the next door, well, that feels weirdly appropriate. Stay tuned and fingers crossed.
