The X-Files reboot has been in talks for over three years now. Before his Oscar nominations came in for Sinners, writer/director Ryan Coogler had been expressing his interests to re-vamp the show for the modern age of television. Now with even more clout to his name, Hulu has greenlit The X-Files reboot.
After a long period of hush, details are now emerging about the exciting return to the unknown. We know Ryan Coogler is heading the show, but who will be alongside him? Here’s everything we know so far.
The X-Files Reboot Is Official
Following his inking of a five-year exclusive television deal with Disney, Ryan Coogler will both write and direct the pilot episode of The X-Files reboot. Disney is the parent company to Hulu, which has picked up the pilot. This means that as of yet, a full series has not been approved. However, with Coogler’s megastar profile after the ground-breaking Sinners, it’s hard to imagine the pilot won’t pass testing.
As confirmed by Deadline, Coogler will be partnering with showrunner Jennifer Yale (The Copenhagen Test). Yale will share executive producer territory with original The X-Files creator Chris Carter as well as Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler. Also, Simone Harris will serve as a co-executive producer.
Currently, only one star has been announced. Danielle Deadwyler has bagged one of the show’s two leading roles. While this isn’t her first brush with television, it will serve as her first leading rendition in a series. She has previously been seen in shows like The Bear, From Scratch, and Station Eleven. She also landed a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best supporting actress for her role in Netflix’s original movie, The Piano Lesson.
Why Now? The Legacy of Scully and Mulder
Ryan Coogler called The X-Files “one of the most beautiful American television shows ever made”, and that opinion is carried by millions. Long before Lost or The Sopranos dominated the conversation around serialised mythology arcs alongside standalone episodes in TV, The X-Files essentially invented the modern prestige TV template. Although the show started as what was widely described as a cult series with a small but devoted following, it grew rapidly into a mainstream phenomenon.
Its single highest-rated episode was “Leonard Betts,” which aired immediately after Super Bowl XXXI on January 26, 1997. It was watched by 29.1 million people, making it the series’ highest-rated episode ever. That’s a number that very few dramas have ever matched. Even after the show ended after nine seasons in 2002, it was revived for a six-episode miniseries in 2016 and an eleven-episode season in 2018, proving that audiences still had an appetite for it.
As well as the show’s influence on television being so enormous, it has endured a lasting legacy with fans who revisit it via streaming sites. It also gains new generations of followers each decade. The X-Files reboot could not only capitalize on this, but build on it. Essentially, it is so ripe for revisiting given the current cultural moment – distrust of institutions, government conspiracy paranoia, and anxieties about the unknown feel just as resonant in 2026 as they did in the 90s, possibly more so.
What Will Coogler’s Reboot Be About?
The plot of Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files differs slightly from the original Fox series. The official logline reads: “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.” As we know, Danielle Deadwyler will be taking on one of those lead roles. However, it is unconfirmed if she will be playing Agent Dana Scully or a brand-new character.
The dynamic between the two main characters differs from the original show in that the two protagonists are assigned to the same division. In the original show, Scully (Gillian Anderson) is assigned to the paranormal division to aid in debunking the work of true believer Agent Fox Mulder’s (David Duchovny). Coogler himself has pointed out that his reboot will throw a different spin on the series whilst also staying respectful.
I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it. Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f*cking scary. We’re gonna try to make something really great and really be something for the real X-Files fans, and maybe find some new ones.
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