Chris Carter is revisiting the past while Ryan Coogler prepares to take The X-Files into the future. Nearly 20 years after The X-Files: I Want to Believe arrived in theaters, Carter’s new cut of the 2008 supernatural thriller, The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn, is set to premiere on August 14, 2026, on Hulu and Disney+. The release comes at an interesting time for the franchise, as Coogler is developing a new X-Files series for Hulu.
Carter directed the original movie and co-wrote it with Fran Spotnitz. The film reunited David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, with Mitch Pileggi returning as Walter Skinner. While the new Vrach Frankenshteyn cut restores and intensifies horror elements that were removed from the theatrical version to achieve a PG-13 rating, the timing of its release also offers fans a chance to revisit Mulder and Scully just as a new generation of X-Files investigators is taking shape.
When a group of women is mysteriously abducted, it becomes a case right out of The X-Files. Years after walking away from the FBI, Fox Mulder and Dr. Dana Scully are pulled back from the shadows when a federal agent vanishes without a trace. In a case you’d never see on TV, their only lead is a disgraced, defrocked priest claiming to have horrific psychic visions of the crime. Forced to confront the ghosts of their past, the partners must navigate a chilling winter landscape and an even darker human monstrosity. The truth of these crimes is out there somewhere … and it will take Mulder and Scully to find it.
The film is a contemporary take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which is reflected in the new Vrach Frankenshteyn title. The new cut also gives Carter the opportunity to restore material that was considered too frightening for the theatrical movie’s PG-13 rating.
Carter has previously explained that the original version was significantly scarier before studio and ratings concerns led to the horror being toned down. The director’s cut therefore isn’t simply an extended version of the movie (it’s actually shorter than the theatrical cut): it represents Carter’s opportunity to bring more of the horror he originally intended back to the screen.
The timing of Vrach Frankenshteyn is particularly interesting because The X-Files is preparing for another major reinvention. Ryan Coogler is developing a new X-Files series for Hulu, with the filmmaker writing and directing the pilot. Rather than continuing the adventures of Mulder and Scully, the reboot will introduce two new FBI agents played by Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel. The pair will portray highly decorated but vastly different agents who form an unlikely partnership when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division dedicated to cases involving unexplained phenomena.
The new X-Files series is also building an impressive supporting cast. Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, Devery Jacobs, Lochlyn Munro, Tantoo Cardinal, Joel D. Montgrand, and Sofia Grace Clifton have all been announced for the project.
Reports indicate that filming on the two-hour pilot (which was apparently shot on 65mm) wrapped a couple of months ago.
For now, Coogler‘s reboot is centered on Deadwyler and Patel rather than Duchovny and Anderson. The new series is being positioned as a fresh take on The X-Files, with its own characters and mythology. Whether that eventually leaves room for appearances from the original cast remains to be seen, but it is known that Coogler has been in contact with both Duchovny and Anderson.
Carter told The Hollywood Reporter that while he wants to “continue to tell and finish the story arc” he had in mind for The X-Files, he also doesn’t want to get in the way of Coogler’s take on the concept. “I don’t want to do anything to compete with that. I don’t want to do anything to get in the way of that. I don’t want to play off of that. That said, I’m anxiously awaiting his version. My name is on it as executive producer, but I have done exactly nothing. I am, like everyone else out there, excited about what it may be. … My choice was not to read the script, because I wanted to watch it like everyone else.“
For fans of the original series, Vrach Frankenshteyn offers an opportunity to return to Mulder and Scully in a version of their second feature film adventure that is intended to be closer to Carter’s original vision.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn premieres August 14 on Hulu and Disney+.
Nearly two decades after I Want to Believe first reached theaters, Chris Carter is finally getting the opportunity to release his darker cut of the movie. And as that version of the past arrives, Ryan Coogler’s new X-Files is preparing to introduce the franchise to an entirely new generation. The truth is still out there.