The truth is out there, and Danielle Deadwyler will be the one to find it. Hulu’s revival of The X-Files has been greenlit, with The Piano Lesson star set to play one of the two lead roles in the series.
Sinners filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who recently made BAFTA history as the first Black winner of Original Screenplay, is pulling double duty to direct and write the pilot. Jennifer Yale (See, The Copenhagen Test) serves as showrunner, while original creator and showrunner Chris Carter will be a non-writing executive producer on the project.
The official logline for the show states, “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
The rebooted premise is a little different from the classic UFO series, which follows Agent Dana’s (Gillian Anderson) assignment to the paranormal division and debunking true believer Agent Fox Mulder’s (David Duchovny) work. There’s no word on whether either of them, or both, is attached to Coogler’s pilot, which has yet to cast the other lead role.
News of the reimagined take on the beloved sci-fi procedural first surfaced in 2023, with plans to feature a “diverse” roster. Updates have been few and far between, but Coogler previously teased an unnerving, spine-chilling time for several episodes (right up his alley, no doubt).
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it,” he said. “Some of these episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f**king scary.”
Coogler is developing the X-Files reboot through Walt Disney Television, while 20th Century Fox Television produced the original. It aired for nine seasons from 1993 to 2001, before receiving two additional seasons in 2016 and 2018. An animated comedy spin-off of the series was reported to be in the works in 2020, but it’s no longer moving forward at Fox.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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