The X-Files will return – again! – and Station Eleven star Danielle Deadwyler will be outfoxing the aliens.
We are getting a new take on The X-Files! don’t get too excited, that could go either way, as anyone who saw the deeply uneven two season reboot can attest to. Don’t get me wrong, not every episode sucks. Just most of ’em. And that had the original cast going for it and everything.
But we’re getting a new X-Files from Ryan Coogler, so that’s a good reason to get a little more optimistic, given that Coogler has directed and written nothing but banger after banger, culminating in a record 16 Oscar nominations for last year’s musical vampire epic, Sinners. We can trust Coogler’s taste at this juncture.
Taste he has once again demonstrated by casting the great Danielle Deadwyler in one of the series’ too lead roles. Which one? Your guess is as good as ours – we don’t even have character names yet. Are we getting a new Mulder and a new Scully? Or is this a sequel sort of situation, in which case we’re saddled with the original series’ moribund and convoluted mythology? Who knows? The truth may be out there, but it’s not here at the moment.
But The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Deadwyler is a lock, and they tend to be across this sort of thing. Per the august industry rag, we even have an official synopsis:
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.
…which isn’t exactly as the original, but it’s close enough for government work.
THR also let us know that Coogler, who is producing, will be writing and directing the pilot for Hulu. Now, while the pilot has gotten a green light, the full series hasn’t at the time of writing, but I’d be extremely surprised if this doesn’t go to series – especially if Sinners does well at the Academy Awards.
Jennifer Yale (See, The Copenhagen Test) is onboard as showrunner, while The X-Files‘ original creator, Chris Carter, will be a non-writing executive producer. Coogler’s partners at Proximity Media, Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler, are also serving as non-writing executive producers.
And that’s all we know for now! But our cautious optimism is now much less cautious.
