28 Years Ago, The X-Files Replaced Mulder & Scully For The First Time And Didn't Learn Its Lesson

Published Sep 28, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. 

The X-Files has seen several new adaptations, spin-offs, reboots, and more over the years, though nothing has had quite the same impact as the original television series. The franchise expanded into two feature films, spawned The Lone Gunmen spin-off, and eventually brought the original show itself back for revival seasons in 2016 and 2018.

Yet much of The X-Files' enduring appeal remains tied to the specific cultural moment that produced it. Its combination of government paranoia, alien conspiracies, paranormal mysteries, and monster-of-the-week stories felt perfectly suited to the 1990s, while David Duchovny's Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson's Dana Scully became inseparable from the franchise itself. Their skeptical-believer dynamic and on-screen chemistry were arguably as important as any individual mystery the show ever sent us out to solve.

The franchise would eventually test that bond by shifting attention toward characters like John Doggett and Monica Reyes, while later revival-era additions similarly explored whether The X-Files could exist without Mulder and Scully as the glue. But the franchise's first major attempt to move beyond its iconic duo actually came years earlier, when The X-Files introduced a brand-new FBI agent as the lead role, and it should've been a clear warning.

The X-Files Replaced Mulder & Scully In This Forgotten Adaptation

When The X-Files made its first major jump into video games in 1998, it made the surprising decision not to put players in control of Fox Mulder or Dana Scully. Instead, The X-Files Game introduced Craig Willmore, an original FBI field agent based in Seattle, and effectively replaced the show's iconic duo as the lead character for most of the experience. The PC and Mac versions launched in June 1998, with a PlayStation adaptation following in 1999.

The premise at least gave the switch a logical explanation, as Mulder and Scully mysteriously disappear while investigating a case, prompting Assistant Director Walter Skinner to assign Willmore to find them. What initially appears to be a missing-person investigation naturally spirals into the kind of conspiracy-heavy story associated with the television series, with familiar characters eventually entering the picture. Mulder and Scully do appear, but players stay in Willmore's perspective the entire time and never actually control the iconic duo.

Gameplay in the original X-Files game was built around a first-person point-and-click adventure format, a genre that was starting to fade out by the time this game hit the scene. You'd explore various locations, search crime scenes for evidence, question characters, use Willmore's FBI computer and other investigative tools, and select dialogue responses that could affect how conversations played out, which all sounds great on paper. Large portions of the game even used filmed footage featuring actors from the television series, so it actually resembled an interactive episode at times.

It was an ambitious approach, but also a massive gamble considering the show's popularity was in large part due to Mulder and Scully's dynamic. At a time when the two were arguably the biggest reason many fans loved The X-Files, the franchise's first substantial game asked players to spend most of their time trying to figure out where the hell they went instead of actually playing as them firsthand.

The 1998 X-Files Game Wasn't A Huge Hit

The X-Files Game wasn't an outright commercial failure, reportedly selling around one million copies worldwide, but its critical reception was far less impressive. The PC version carries a 56 Metascore, while GameSpot awarded it just 5.1/10 and later characterized the game as a major disappointment. Critics took issue with its dated FMV-heavy design, awkward interface, simplistic puzzles, and limited interactivity, although its ability to recreate the atmosphere and visual style of the television series earned considerably more praise.

Perhaps most tellingly, GameSpot argued that the experience improves considerably once Craig Willmore finally finds Mulder and Scully, noting that interacting with the familiar agents was ultimately what many players were there to do. That criticism should have served as an early warning about just how inseparable The X-Files had become from its two leads. The mysteries, conspiracies, and paranormal cases were crucial ingredients, but Mulder and Scully were the personalities that made audiences care about them.

Unfortunately, the television series would eventually test that lesson for itself. David Duchovny reduced his involvement beginning with Season 8, leading to Robert Patrick's John Doggett becoming Scully's new partner. By Season 9, Duchovny was largely absent, Gillian Anderson had a reduced role, and Doggett and Monica Reyes effectively became the show's primary investigating team.

The transition proved difficult, as Season 9 suffered a roughly 30% ratings decline from Season 8, and its premiere drew 10.6 million viewers, the lowest audience for a season premiere in the show's original run. Creator Chris Carter later acknowledged that the series had lost a substantial portion of its audience. The point was driven home in 2001 with The Lone Gunmen, a Mulder-and-Scully-less spin-off that struggled to attract viewers and was canceled by Fox after just one 13-episode season.

The original series consequently ended in 2002, and retrospective reception for Season 9 remains particularly poor, with a 22% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Doggett and Reyes were not inherently bad characters, just as Craig Willmore wasn't necessarily a bad protagonist. The recurring problem was asking replacements to carry a franchise whose identity had become overwhelmingly tied to Mulder and Scully. Four years before The X-Files learned that lesson the hard way, its first video game had already given its producers a clear warning.