Gillian Anderson hints at involvement in Ryan Coogler’s ‘X-Files’ reboot
Actor Gillian Anderson has provided an exciting update on whether or not she will be involved in the upcoming reboot of the beloved series X-Files.
This comes not two weeks after Sinners director Ryan Coogler announced that the long-rumoured X-Files reboot is happening and it’s “immediately next” in his list of upcoming projects.
“I spoke to him,” Anderson confirmed on the TV show This Morning. “What I said was, ‘If anyone were to do it, I think you are the perfect person and best of luck, call me.’ At some point, if the phone rings and it’s good and it feels like the right time, perhaps.”
The Sex Education actor starred in the popular FBI show between 1993 and 2002. She returned for two seasons between 2016 and 2018, but in 2024 suggested that the eleventh season would be her final time playing the role.
At that time, Anderson stated previously that she wasn’t “enjoying the direction that it was heading” and felt that she “didn’t have a voice in it”. As a result, she decided she needed to “move on to something where I might have more of a voice.” Anderson particularly didn’t like the pregnancy storyline that her character was given, believing it was diminishing and unfortunate.
Anderson was not afraid to be vocal about this. She previously said: “It felt like Scully’s trajectory was no longer one of strength and agency,” Anderson said. “It felt like it was beholden to an old idea of what a woman is… Literally all she could talk about was William and finding William. That’s literally a one-track song.”
Little else is currently known about Coogler’s vision for a reboot of The X-Files. Back in 2023, Creator Chris Carter suggested that the Black Panther director was going to “remount” the beloved sci-fi series with “a diverse cast.” It is this propensity for diversity that Anderson seems to appreciate.
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