Gillian Anderson Openly Addresses 'X-Files' Reboot Rumors
As David Duchovny endlessly skeptical Fox Mulder so often told us, the truth is out there -- and so too is the possibility of a long-discussed continuation of The X-Files.
As nostalgic viewers might recall, The X-Files focuses on the ongoing investigations of F.B.I. agents Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and his skeptical partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Grappling with the unexplained phenomenon they encounter through the agency, the two baffled government agents slowly unravel one mystery after another related to alien travelers, secret societies, and horrifying mutant serial killers.
Dominating network television throughout the 1990s, The X-Files managed to become one of the hottest sci-fi series in TV history, maintaining as iconic a place in modern pop culture as The Twilight Zone before it and Lost after it.
With up-and-coming director Ryan Coogler -- the filmmaker behind such popular projects as Black Panther, Creed and, most recently, Michael B. Jordan's Sinners -- currently eyeing a remake of the classic sci-fi series, former X-Files star Gillian Anderson has officially weighed in on Coogler's plans for a reboot.
In a recent appearance on ITV1's This Morning, the 56-year-old Emmy winner said of the reboot, "I spoke to [Coogler], and what I said was, 'If anyone were to do it, I think you are the perfect person, and best of luck."
As to whether she might reprise her role as the contemplative Agent Scully, Anderson revealed that she had told Coogler to "call me" if he had any ideas for bringing the character back to television.
"At some point, if the phone rings and it's good and it feels like the right time, perhaps,' Anderson said of her potential return to the series.
Previously, The Crown actress had teased the possibility of portraying Scully in a future reboot from Coogler. During Anderson's appearance on the Today show last year, she teased, "I think [Coogler is] really cool and I think if he did it, it would probably be done incredibly well. And maybe I'll pop in for a little something something."
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But Anderson is clearly cheered by the enthusiasm his performers have for the process, and how well the newer members of his family of players have taken to it. Michael Cera (who is fantastic as a fussy Norwegian tutor in Korda's employ) and Riz Ahmed (as Prince Farouk, the heir to the fictional nation of Phoenicia, which is vital to the plot) were Anderson's two big additions this time around, and the filmmaker said that both actors dove in with aplomb. And it shows—they fit comfortably among the Anderson stalwarts, capturing the archness typical of the director's characters. Del Toro's performance is the most crucial component to The Phoenician Scheme; it's the first Anderson movie centered on a single lead since The Grand Budapest Hotel, starring Ralph Fiennes. Del Toro had been in Anderson's head as Korda from the start, so much that he informed the actor of the idea while they were promoting their prior collaboration, 2021's The French Dispatch. Anderson remembered his pitch being vague to a comedic, overblown degree: 'I told him there's some Buñuel aspect to it.'' As I tried to describe Del Toro's on-screen presence to Anderson, I ended up referencing his 'whatever' (American for je ne sais quoi). Del Toro's early roles (in 1990s cult films such as The Usual Suspects and Excess Baggage) smacked of knockoff Marlon Brando: all movement, mumbling charm, and giddy chaos. But with time, the actor has learned to communicate decades of regret and the darkest emotional headspace with barely a flicker of his face. That's the power of his presence, or, as Anderson agreed, his 'whatever.' This isn't the first time Anderson wrote with an actor in mind. As we spoke, he mentioned the late Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums. Hackman's character, Royal Tenenbaum, is another intense father figure who, like Korda, is both brilliant and terrible. But Anderson scripted him two decades ago, before he became a parent. I asked him if the intervening years had changed his investigations into the sins of fatherhood, and he nodded. ' Tenenbaums was completely from the point of view of looking up at the old man,' he said. Now, at age 56, the director is practically Korda's age; he also has a daughter, as do Del Toro and Anderson's frequent story collaborator Roman Coppola: 'I guess we're coming at it from the father's point of view, but, I will say, with a bit of the perspective of still thinking about our own fathers.' The Phoenician Scheme strikes that balance: It's wiser, and it has the looser silliness that comes with middle age—but it's looking up at those imposing father figures, tycoons or no, with awe and fear all the same.
