Gillian Anderson may return for Ryan Coogler's The X-Files reboot

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has just had a big hit with Sinners, which made $45.6 million in the US alone on its opening weekend, but his next project is something quite different — The X-Files.

Coogler says he’s working on a revamped The X-Files “immediately next,” as revealed on the Last Podcast on the Left movie podcast.

“I’ve been excited for that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it,” Coogler said.

He also says he’s in talks with Gillian Anderson about returning for the project, although there’s no current suggestion she’ll lead the TV series — assuming Coogler and co. don’t pivot to making a movie instead.

This X-Files reboot was discussed back in 2023, when series Chris Carter announced the project, including that Ryan Coogler would be its showrunner.

However, with Coogler on a real hot streak these last couple of years, there was always a chance the director could have become detached from The X-Files reboot in favour of something even more glamorous. For now at least, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

What happened to The X-Files?

The last season of The X-Files was broadcast in 2018. Season 10 and 11 were a reboot of sorts in their own right, as the series had not been on screens for more than 13 years at the time.

The first seven seasons of the show might be considered its original run, after which David Duchovny left the show amid disputes about pay. Robert Patrick joined the cast for season eight, although Duchovny did return in 2003 for the show’s season nine finale.

When Chris Carter announced The X-Files’s return in 2023, he suggested it would be without Anderson or Duchovny. By that time the show was already 30 years old.

A while back the series was going to get an animated spin-off, The X-Files: Abuquerque, a comedy that focused on the cases too weird for silly for Mulder and Scully to handle. But it was confirmed to be off the table in early 2023.

All 11 seasons of The X-Files are available to stream at Disney Plus in the UK, should you be ready for an epic rewatch.