Four years ago, Gillian Anderson announced that she was done with The X-Files franchise and would not be returning to the role of Dana Scully, a character she played in all but five episodes of the show’s eleven season run, as well as two feature films. She still has no intention of doing any more X-Files… but Variety was able to get her to reveal what the conditions would have to be to get her to agree to play Scully again.
Anderson said,
(The X-Files) just feels like such an old idea. I’ve done it, I did it for so many years, and it also ended on such an unfortunate note (Scully’s pregnancy reveal). In order to even begin to have that conversation (about another season) there would need to be a whole new set of writers and the baton would need to be handed on for it to feel like it was new and progressive. So yeah, it’s very much in the past.”
After Anderson first announced she was done with Scully, The X-Files creator Chris Carter said,
There are a lot more X-Files stories to tell. Whether we get to tell them is a question mark. The truth is out there. … I don’t know. I think that certainly The X-Files has more life in it, there are more stories to tell, with Gillian or without. I’m sorry to see her go, I’ve never actually considered doing this show without her, so is this the end? It’s the end of something, I don’t know if it’s the beginning of something new. But certainly we will have to all put our heads together and figure out where to go from here.”
Anderson’s co-star David Duchovny said he’s good whether The X-Files continues or not.
I’ve tried to say goodbye to Fox Mulder many times and I failed. And they all went and did the show without me, so how do you like that?”
(Duchovny was largely absent from the eighth and ninth seasons of The X-Files.)
Would you like to see more of The X-Files, or are you as done with this franchise as Anderson is? Let us know by leaving a comment below.