The X-Files spanned 202 episodes after 9 seasons—as well as
two feature films—and left the air back in 2002. While the airdate for
the 6-episode “event” has yet to be determined, shooting begins this
June. We caught up with the show’s creator, Chris Carter, to get the
background. The truth is, as they say, out there.
You must be having an exciting day.
Yeah, it just got exciting as you can imagine.
So what can we expect in the six episodes?
It’ll be honest to the characters, and what happened to them since the series ended and the second movie.
Will you personally be overseeing the scripts?
There
are no scripts yet! But yes, I will be overseeing them, but with
several people who have been working on the show over the years.
There’s a lot of X-Files mythology, will casual viewers be able to jump right in?
Yes.
I like to think that anyone can enter this without much of a run up.
That said, you don’t want to have to hit the hardcore fans over the head
getting them up to speed.
You must have the basic arc worked out in your head already.
I
do, actually. I know what I want to do, how I want it to lay out—the
balance of mythology to standalone episodes. Even though none of us have
had contracts, I’ve only had one since yesterday, the people that are
going to be involved have been talking since the beginning of the year,
so we have a clear idea of how this should be, or the best way we think
this should be laid out.
Does everyone involved, such as the actors, have a say in the stories?
The X-Files has
always been a group achievement. You benefit by being open to people’s
good ideas. The show wouldn’t be the show it is without the contribution
of so many good people who work on it.
---
What was the process with making it happen? Was it hard to get the actors?
No,
David and Gillian wanted to do it. It was kind of the perfect timing
for everyone involved. We all had a space in which to do it, we all had a
desire to tell these stories, and, as I said in the press release, I
think the world’s gotten that much stranger in the last 13 years. For
me, it’s an opportunity as a storyteller to take advantage of that.
Everyone wanted to do it, and the negotiations actually began in
November, and were finalized yesterday. I’d say that it was simply a
matter of everyone agreeing to the ground rules.
---
If these episodes do well, will we see another X-Files movie?
I
think… First things first, we just want to do six great episodes. We’re
all primed to do that, there are great stories to tell, and now it’s
just distilling it down to telling the best stories possible in the time
we have.
[Source]