'The X-Files' Is Heading Back to Your Screen Courtesy of an All-New Animated Comedy Spinoff
The new series will focus on a team of agents in Albuquerque, investigating cases too silly for Mulder and Scully.
Across nine initial seasons between 1993–2002, an additional two seasons that aired in 2016 and 2018, and two big-screen movies as well, FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigated all manner of weird and wonderful cases. They all involved the paranormal, supernatural and conspiracies, of course, spanning everything from aliens and psychic abilities to sewer-dwelling man-worm creatures and teenagers who could channel lightning — and they made The X-Files both a sci-fi hit while it was airing and a sci-fi classic ever since.
Sometime in the near future, The X-Files will serve up a range of new cases. This time, though, expect them to be silly, funny and particularly preposterous. As reported by Variety, the show is coming back again, but as an all-new animated comedy spinoff that'll focus on a team covering investigations considered too ridiculous for Mulder and Scully.
As fans of The X-Files will know, there's nothing too out-there for Mulder and Scully. The former's nickname was 'Spooky', after all. And, even though the latter was often highly skeptical of her partner's theories, she was also known to suggest some creative ideas of her own. But 'too wacky for Mulder and Scully' is the premise that 20th Television and Fox Entertainment seem to be sticking with for the new show — which sounds more than a bit like The X-Files meets Scooby-Doo.
While few other specifics have been revealed as yet, the series will be called The X-Files: Albuquerque, and will focus on "an office full of misfit agents... they're basically the X-Files' B-team", as Variety notes.
There's no word on when it'll reach screens, but neither Anderson nor Duchovny are currently involved — so don't go getting your hopes up for an animated Mulder and Scully (well, another one, after their appearance on The Simpsons back in 1997). Behind the lens, The X-Files creator Chris Carter is an executive producer, while Movie 43's Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko will be writing the series.
The X-Files: Albuquerque will mark The X-Files' franchise's fourth TV series, following the original; 1996–9's Lance Henriksen-starring Millennium, which was set in the same universe; and 2001's The Lone Gunmen, about three conspiracy-obsessed characters initially seen helping Mulder and Scully.
If you need a reminder of what made The X-Files so great, check out the below trailer for the 2008 movie The X-Files: I Want to Believe. You can also stream all 11 series of The X-Files in Australia on Amazon Prime Video.
Via Variety.