Ryan Coogler's 'The X-Files' Reboot Gets Pilot Order With Perfect Scully Replacement

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Chris H.B. / © Fox Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection

Published Feb 23, 2026, 3:21 PM EST

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

Best Director nominee Ryan Coogler has been dropping clues about his long-mooted reboot of The X-Files, but now, finally, the truth is out there. The series has been given a pilot order by Hulu, with Coogler both writing and directing the first episode. Plus, we now know who will be filling the shoes of original series leads Scully and/or Mulder.

According to reports, Danielle Deadwyler, the star of films like The Harder They Fall, Till, and The Piano Lesson, will play one of the two lead roles. As per the series' new logline, the show will follow a pair of equally decorated but dissimilar FBI agents who develop a close relationship when they're assigned to a long-shuttered branch of the agency dedicated to investigating unexplained phenomena. That seems to set the series up as a sequel to the original, which ran for nine seasons on Fox from 1993-2002, and then for two revival seasons from 2016-2018. That also wouldn't rule out appearances from David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, or any other former cast members from the well-loved supernatural series.

What Is 'The X-Files' About?

The series opens with skeptical FBI agent and medical doctor Dana Scully (Anderson) assigned to work with paranormal believer Fox Mulder (Duchovny), whose enthusiasm for working on the bureau's so-called "X-Files" has left him confined to a basement office in FBI headquarters. A capable investigator, Mulder believes his long-missing sister was abducted by aliens, and that a conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrial life extends to the highest levels of the US government. Together with the reluctant Scully, the duo criss-cross the country in search of the unexplained. The chemistry of the two leads led to the series becoming a huge hit for Fox; it became one of the first series whose growing fandom communicated with each other (often about whether Mulder and Scully should fall in love) on the then-nascent internet. After spawning a big-screen feature, the series eventually groaned under the weight of its own accumulated conspiracies, and both Anderson and Duchovny eventually largely departed the show, to be replaced with John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). Cancelled in 2002, it (and Anderson and Duchovny) would eventually return with another theatrical film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and a two-season revival.

Chris Carter, who created the original series, wrote 72 of its episodes, and wrote both of its feature films, will return to the new series as a non-writing executive producer. Also executive producing are Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler.

Ryan Coogler's new X-Files series has been given a pilot order by Hulu; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Release Date 1993 - 2018-00-00

Network FOX

Directors Rob Bowman, David Nutter, R. W. Goodwin, Michael W. Watkins, Tony Wharmby, Daniel Sackheim, Michael Lange, Cliff Bole, David Duchovny, Jim Charleston, James Wong, Peter Markle, Rod Hardy, Thomas J. Wright, William A. Graham, Jerrold Freedman, Joe Napolitano, Kevin Hooks, Larry Shaw, Richard Compton, Tucker Gates, Allen Coulter, Barry K. Thomas, Brett Dowler

Writers jeffrey bell, Frank Spotnitz, Howard Gordon, David Amann, Darin Morgan, Steven Maeda, Greg Walker, Chris Ruppenthal, Kim Newton, Paul Brown, Sara B. Cooper, Thomas Schnauz, Tim Minear, William Gibson, Jeff Vlaming, Charles Grant Craig, Chip Johannessen, Chris Brancato, Daniel Arkin, Gillian Anderson, Jessica Scott, Jim Guttridge, Kenneth Biller, Larry Barber

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