After The X-Files wrapped up its original nine-season run, Mulder and Scully reunited for The X-Files: I Want to Believe, a big-screen movie that was pretty divisive among critics and fans. Now, nearly two decades later, Chris Carter is getting a second chance to show the version he always intended with a brand-new director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe Director’s Cut
Disney recently released a list of titles coming to Disney+ in June, including a director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe. It will be released on June 11 and will be found as a bonus feature on the film’s existing page. So, what’s the deal with this possible new cut?
Carter explained on the Fail Better with David Duchovny podcast last year that he was given the go-ahead to work on a director’s cut of the film.
“I made it too scary, basically, and I was told so by the brass at Fox, and they wanted a PG-13 movie,” Carter said. “So we cut it back to be a PG-13 movie, and we thought, ‘Okay, we’ve satisfied their demands.’ The critics, the people who rate the movies, said ‘No, it’s not a PG-13 yet, you’ve got to cut it back even farther.’ I can tell you that you can do more on network television, [the censors] are more permissive than they are for the movies.“
He continued, “Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended. It’s not just doing a director’s cut to do a director’s cut. It’s really kind of bringing to life something that for me was on the page and never got to the screen.“
An extended cut of I Want to Believe was included on the film’s physical media release, totalling about 3 minutes of new and alternate footage. As Carter only started working on this new cut last year, this will likely be different. The film follows Mulder and Scully as they are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.
The X-Files Reboot Series
Ryan Coogler is writing and directing a reboot of The X-Files that will follow “two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.” Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) and Himesh Patel (Yesterday) will be starring, with Amy Madigan (Weapons), Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs), Ben Foster (Hell or High Water), Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs), Lochlyn Munro (Freddy vs. Jason), Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves), Joel D. Montgrand (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Sofia Grace Clifton (Station 19) recently signing on for guest roles in the pilot.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed