Ryan Coogler’s revival of The X-Files is happening, and it’s happening before the writer-director’s next Black Panther movie. Coogler said so during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz podcast, offering an explanation of why he’s all in on X-Files and a loose plan about what his reboot will look like.
For Coogler, a big reason for revisiting X-Files is nostalgia. “That show is what I used to watch with my mom,” Coogler told Horowitz. “It’s one of the most beautiful American television shows ever made. Chris Carter will tell you, he was trying to make Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and for me that’s what it’s all about: When you as an artist [are] trying to capture something that you were influenced by and make something totally new.”
Coogler apparently loves the formula of “a skeptic paired with a believer” who are trying to solve a case, à la True Detective season 1. Plus, Coogler points out, The X-Files is the show that put Vince Gilligan on the map. Would we have Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Pluribus in a world with no X-Files? That’s a case that I’m sure Scully and Mulder could solve.
As for what his take on The X-Files might look like, “We intend on having both monsters of the week and also the overarching conspiracy,” Coogler said, just like the original series. Coogler adds that he received some “advice about how to make television” from Gilligan himself, so hopefully the writer-producer-director on the original X-Files had some good tips.
While we’re still waiting on some important when-and-where details on the new X-Files, it’s “what I’m doing now,” Coogler said. “Black Panther comes after that. I’m blessed to be working on things this cool. It’s also nice to have something that has the pressure of the fans, [and] a lot of really smart people that I don’t want to let down.”
But Coogler expertly dodged more specific details about his X-Files revival. When obliquely asked about returning cast members, Coogler told Horowitz, “I’m a big fan of [Gillian Anderson], big fan of David [Duchovny]. That’s all I can say.”
The X-Files originally ran on Fox from 1993 to 2002 across nine seasons spanning 202 episodes. A 10th season of six episodes brought the sci-fi franchise back in 2016, with an 11th season of 10 episodes following in 2018. Two stand-alone feature films were released in 1998 and 2008. All 11 seasons of The X-Files, including the two reboot seasons, will be streaming on-demand on Pluto TV beginning Jan. 1, 2026. The show will also have a dedicated channel, which will first air a complete linear run of the entire series.
