It’s been talked about for nearly ten years, but now, thanks to an out-of-court settlement, it might actually happen. David Duchovny, aka Agent Fox Mulder from the smash ‘90s sci-fi show The X-Files, recently spilled that show creator Chris Carter is finally in talks with 20th Century Fox about a second X-Files movie, having settled with them in a lawsuit over syndication profits. So when Empire got the chance to sit down with Gillian Anderson, aka Agent Dana Scully, to discuss her new film, Straightheads, we couldn’t resist bringing up her mooted return to the shadowy basement beneath FBI headquarters.
“They’re starting to talk about doing a feature again,” she confirms. “Every year or two they talk about it again, but it seems like it might be for real this time. Somehow it seems like somebody’s really serious about it. I know that Chris’ lawsuit with Fox is over, so maybe now it can be done.”
There’s no getting plot details out of her (“I keep in email contact with Chris but he won’t talk about it. At all”), but Anderson was able to say that it’s unlikely we’ll see the return of the little grey aliens at the heart of the series’ long-running conspiracy thread. “All Chris says is that he wants to make a really scary horror, like a stand-alone episode. I don’t think they’re interested in touching on any of the conspiracy stuff.”
The show disappointed many of its followers by petering out without wrapping up the story to their satisfaction. But Anderson says that the movie sequel’s function isn’t to appease the hardcore fans. “I actually don’t have enough of a perspective to say whether questions were answered or whether it was wrapped up enough in the end, and honestly there’s part of me that doesn’t care. I can be sympathetic to die-hard fans who might feel left in short shrift, but that’s where my sympathies lie!”
For the latest news on The X-Files’ bid to mutate into a big-screen franchise, trust no-one — except Empire.