Ryan Coogler ‘X-Files’ Reboot Gets Blessing From Original Series Star

Have you seen Sinners?! If you have, great. You are already on the other side of seeing one of the best movies that will be released in theaters this year. If not, that’s OK too, because it means you still get to experience Ryan Coogler’s terrifying and sexy masterpiece for the first time. Oh, how I envy you! Sinners has proven even further that the Black Panther director is a creative force to be reckoned with. At this point, I’ll be happily seated for whatever creative endeavor he pursues next, even if it is a familiar one that I wouldn’t want to see rebooted otherwise!

I was the perfect age for X-Files when it hit TV screens after The Simpsons and before a clip show of car crashes on FOX (I’m sure it bounced around and maybe it was never on after Simpsons, but that’s how I remember it). It felt like something I shouldn’t be watching, probably because I was too young to be watching it. That show was scary as hell! The episodes will still get me all these years later, due to their quality, and some childhood trauma that is buried (not too deep) in my subconscious. Now, the show could return to traumatize a new generation.

This isn’t the first time The X-Files have been reopened. A second movie aired after the show’s original conclusion. Then, the show returned in 2016, continued by its original creator, who brought back stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. The whole endeavor was met with a mixed to negative reaction, with varying reasons as to why (sometimes you don’t need things to be explained so much). It felt like the property would end on a down note, but now Ryan Coogler wants to change that.

Coogler has been attached to an X-Files reboot for some time, but he’s recently made it clear that it will be the next thing he works on. He has said that, should things go well, he’s looking to make some episodes that are “really f***ing scary.” Sounds good, Ryan! The only way it would sound better is if one of the original stars of the series was excited about this, as I am! Like, imagine one of the original duo speaking up to say what a great choice Coogler is. Now, imagine no more because that’s what happened!

Gillian Anderson played Agent Dana Scully throughout the series. Now, she’s hyping up the show’s return (and maybe teasing a possible return for herself). She’s spoken to Ryan Coogler and is at least quite enthusiastic. “I spoke to him, and what I said was, ‘If anyone were to do it, I think you are the perfect person and best of luck, call me,’” Anderson explained on ITV1’s This Morning. “At some point, if the phone rings and it’s good and it feels like the right time — perhaps.”

I wouldn’t mind if Coogler started fresh with his take on The X-Files. Trying to continue and tie up the continuity built around the original series was one of the newest iteration’s faults. But, if Scully became a senior figure? Maybe she runs The X-Files as a storied overseer? Baby, you got a stew goin’.