A New Era For The X-Files Is Officially On The Way

Published Oct 13, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.

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The X-Files is officially entering a new era, and it’s very different from what the franchise has done before. There are different sci-fi shows among the best TV shows of all time, and one of them, as well as one of the most influential shows in TV history, is The X-Files. Created by Chris Carter, The X-Files aired on Fox from 1993 to 2002 for nine seasons, before returning with a 10th season in 2016. Season 10's success led to one more season, released in 2018 and closing the stories of Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny).

The X-Files is a perfect blend of sci-fi, drama, and horror, while also successfully merging overarching stories with monster-of-the-week cases, making every season a much more complete, richer, and engaging experience. The X-Files also left its mark through its main characters and their dynamic, changing traditional character tropes and introducing one of the best and most complex female characters in TV history. It’s easy to see, then, why The X-Files is one of the most influential TV shows of all time, and it’s now ready for a new era.

The X-Files franchise has continued through spinoffs and comic books, but it’s now getting a proper reboot over at Hulu. The project was announced in 2023 with Ryan Coogler developing it, and in February 2026, it was given a pilot order by Hulu. Luckily, and unlike other exciting reboots that didn’t go past a pilot episode, Hulu has now given Coogler’s The X-Files a series order, thanks to which the franchise is officially entering a whole new chapter.

Hulu's The X-Files Being A Reimagining Takes The Franchise In A New Direction

Courtesy: Everett Collection

Hulu’s reboot of The X-Files is staying true to the show’s essence, but it’s taking the franchise in a new and exciting direction. Hulu’s The X-Files stars Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel, and at the time of writing, there’s no word on Anderson and/or Duchovny potentially reprising their roles as Scully and Mulder, even if just for a brief appearance.

Coogler’s take on The X-Files is being described as a reimagining of the iconic show, with Deadwyler and Patel’s characters being “two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents” who will be assigned to “a long-shuttered division.” Despite their differences, these characters will end up forming a strong bond while working together, which is pretty much the core of the original show and the dynamic between Mulder and Scully.

At the time of writing, more details about the cast are unknown, but the pilot episode is known to feature some notable guest stars. Joining Deadwyler and Patel in the first episode of Hulu’s The X-Files are Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi, and Ben Foster, and if that’s just for the pilot, this could be a great sign of many more big guest stars coming in the rest of the show’s first season.

Everything Else We Know About The X-Files Reboot

Robert Falconer/ 20th Century Fox Film Corp.

Details about the story of Ryan Coogler’s The X-Files reboot are currently unknown, but it all points to it staying true to the structure of the main show. In 2025, Coogler shared that he plans to give his The X-Files reboot a monster-of-the-week structure and an overarching conspiracy, which will surely be key to drawing in the audience of the original show while also appealing to new viewers.

The world has changed a lot since the end of Mulder and Scully’s stories, so it’s going to be especially interesting to see what kind of mysteries and conspiracies the new The X-Files show will cover. It’s also to be seen if Coogler’s reboot will also mix sci-fi, drama, and horror or lean more towards one or another, as the audience and their interests have also changed in eight years.

What’s for sure is that the new The X-Files show has a lot of potential to succeed, thanks to Ryan Coogler’s involvement, its loyalty to the main show while also being a modern take, its main cast, and Hulu deciding to go for it based on its pilot episode.