David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson On Reopening 'The X-Files'

In a wide-ranging discussion with Deadline, Duchovny and Anderson touched on how the show always felt owed an afterlife, recalled meeting each other for the first time, and hesitated when I asked about where the show might go from here. At Fox’s upfront press call in May, Fox TV Group chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman said the conversations had started with Carter, Anderson and Duchovny for a new order of episodes. “I’m open to the conversation, though they haven’t come to us yet,” Anderson said. And Duchovny added: “The question becomes, if we were going to move on, how do we make it work even better? … How do we make this interesting again for all of us?”

Excerpt: 

On mini-series that allowed the return of the show
Duchovny: After the second movie opened against The Dark Knight, and it was kind of a doomed enterprise in that way, I think we assumed it was dead. As television rearranged itself over the last 10 years, the idea of a season changed from 24 episodes, to 6, 8, 10, 12, or whatever. It became apparent that we could exist there, at least temporarily.

Anderson: In my head, at least, was the fantasy of maybe doing three movies. I don’t know where that came from, but it was a shame the second was handled in the way it was. We knew we wanted to continue the conversation and try and trump that experience. he idea of doing a small pack, and realizing that our series works best when we have an opportunity to show all the elements of it, which you can’t fit into a single feature, suddenly it could be allowed to be all those things it is at its very best.

On chemistry between them
Duchovny: What exists in the writing, as well, is that these two people are true partners and they complete one another intellectually and emotionally. I do think that’s very romantic, when you have a man and a woman treating each other as equals. And not just as equals, but as necessary components of one another. Without the other, they fall as people, as entities, as investigators. It’s highly romantic and yet not sexual, though there’s a lot of tension.

Anderson: They have a clear depth of caring about one another, and that’s what really gets people. They care about one another’s welfare, and so even if they’re at odds in their beliefs, their caring transcends that, through all nine seasons.

On future of The X-Files
Anderson: I’m open to the conversation, though they haven’t come to us yet. I have no clue when they’re going to. I’m getting on with the rest of my life and I’m booking other jobs, so if it is indeed something that they would like to continue, then that conversation will need to be had. And I have no idea when that will be able to take place at this juncture.