David Duchovny said it wasn't originally the plan to bring his cult favorite sci-fi series back to the small screen.
"When I was doing the show, I always assumed – because we started to
do the movies – that we would naturally transition to not carrying the
load of doing a full season of the show but doing a movie every four or
five years," the actor tells THR.
Duchovny, co-star Gillian Anderson and series creator Chris Carter
were all vocal about the desire to do a third film in the years since,
but nothing ever materialized until the six-episode revival was
announced in March.
"That didn't work out with the movies. … [The second movie] did well,
but I guess not well enough," said Duchovny. "Fox made some mistakes
with that movie that hurt the franchise and they didn't seem to want to
do another movie. So as the TV landscape changed and as it became
conceivable to do this show without doing 22 or 25 [episodes] of them on
television, then it seemed like a natural thing. We all started to think, 'I don’t mind doing it on TV if we don’t
have to do a full season,' " continued Duchovny. "We just could make it
like a six-hour movie."
Despite his comments about damage the franchise sustained from the
last film, Duchovny doesn't have the same concerns about the upcoming
resurrection.
"It's been awhile since I've played Mulder so it's going to be
strange for sure the first couple days. Luckily Gillian will be there
and we'll be there for each other to say, 'That doesn’t seem right or
something like that,' " said Duchovny with a laugh. "All the principals
are back. Chris will be there, Gillian will be there, I'll be there and
we can all check on each other and say, 'Is this the show?' Because
we'll find it. It's just a matter of relaxing and letting it happen."
Although it's been seven years since he last walked in Special Agent
Fox Mulder's shoes, and 13 years since the show wrapped, Duchovny says
not much will have changed when The X-Files returns.
"It's going to be the same show," says Duchovny. "It's obviously
going to be different times and the characters are going to be older and
all of the things that are going to be changing naturally will change."