New X Files series is on its way – and Black Panther's Ryan Coogler is behind it

Ryan Coogler
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The X Files is getting the reboot treatment, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Ryan Coogler is said to be behind it. Or, at least, that's what the show's creator, Chris Carter, hinted at during a recent appearance on the CBC radio show On the Coast With Gloria Macarenko.

After touching on the show's upcoming 30th anniversary, Carter told the host: "I just spoke to a young man, Ryan Coogler, who is going to remount The X-Files with a diverse cast."

He also went on to say that the filmmaker has "his work cut out for him" with the revival, given how the world is even more steeped in conspiracy theories than it was when the original series aired between 1991 and 2002. 

Starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, The X Files centered on paranoid, alien-believing FBI agent Fox Mulder and his more cynical partner Dana Scully, as the pair investigated a bunch of inexplicable paranormal cases. It went on to spawn two feature films, in 1998 and 2008 respectively, and two sequel series which kicked off on Fox in 2016.

"This is it for me, I'm really serious," Anderson said during a Television Critics Association panel back in 2018. "I have so much respect for these guys but I'm finished, and thats the end of that. I like to be challenged as an actor and I like to do many many characters. It's time for me to hang up Scully's hat, it just is. The next couple of years are quite full. There's lots of things I want to do in my life and my career," she continued. "I don't want to be tied down to months and months of any particular one thing."

Following its acquisition of Fox in March 2019, the show's studio, 20th TV, has moved to Disney, with which Coogler's Proximity Media has a five-year content deal.

For more, check out our list of the most exciting new TV shows coming our way in 2023 and beyond.

Amy West

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.