X-Files' Gillian Anderson teases possible reboot role

Yahoo

30-04-2025

The X-Files was the show that launched Gillian Anderson's long career on screen, even tempting her back for a revamped series in 2016 and 2018 – and now she has admitted that she wouldn't rule out a return as Dana Scully in the latest reboot.
Sci-fi hit show The X-Files is getting a revamped series under Sinners director Ryan Coogler, who sent fans into a frenzy of excitement earlier in April when he claimed on a podcast that he had been in talks with Anderson about reprising her role. She starred in the original 90s series alongside David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, playing FBI agents investigating paranormal and extraterrestrial cases.
One of those excited fans was This Morning host Ben Shephard, who couldn't resist asking Anderson whether it was true when she stopped in to talk about new film The Salt Path. She said she would consider an X-Files return if "it's good and it feels like the right time".
Coogler caused a stir in a recent interview with The Last Podcast on the Left when he said of his forthcoming X-Files reboot: "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***ing scary."
He then added that he had spoken to Anderson and said: "She's incredible and fingers crossed there. We're going to try to make something really great, bro, and make something for the real X-Files fans and maybe find some new ones."
Although Anderson was a guest on This Morning to talk about new film The Salt Path, Shephard told her he had to ask whether the X-Files rumours were true.
Read more:
David Duchovny lists his conditions for X-Files return (Cover Media, 1 min read)
Ryan Coogler Has Spoken To Gillian Anderson About 'X Files' Reboot: 'Fingers Crossed There' (Deadline, 2 min read)
David Duchovny Says He 'Can't Really Explain' 'The X-Files'' Popularity, Reveals the One 'Conspiracy' He Believes (People, 4 min read)
He said: "I was listening to The Last Podcast on the Left and the director Ryan Coogler, I got very excited about this because he says he's very excited, they've talked about it, they're going to do the reboot and they have spoken to Gillian about coming back in some capacity. Have you spoken to him, might you be involved?"
Anderson laughed and seemed reluctant to answer, but eventually replied: "I spoke to (Coogler) and what I said was, if anyone were to do it, I think you are the person and best of luck. Best of luck! Call me!
"At some point, if the phone rings and it's good and it feels like the right time, perhaps. That's what I said. But he's amazing."
Trying to steer the conversation back to The Salt Path, she added: "Oh boy, this is all that anyone's going to talk about, they're going to forget about the lovely film."
She might have started out in sci-fi drama, but in recent years Anderson has put in some acclaimed performances as real people. She played Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, Eleanor Roosevelt in The First Lady, Emily Maitlis in Scoop, and is now about to be seen as Raynor Winn in the film adaptation of her bestselling memoir, The Salt Path.
The film follows Winn and her husband Moth's 630-mile journey along the South West Coast Path after they were made homeless and Moth was given a life-limiting diagnosis. Winn appeared alongside Anderson on This Morning, where the actor talked about the pressures of playing real people.
She said: "I've played real-life people who have passed and recently I did Emily Maitlis (for Scoop, the drama about the Newsnight journalist's infamous interview with Prince Andrew) who's more present. I think that was probably the most intimidating because she's so well-known and people listen to and see her daily.
"So actually, for me it was less about whether people would think that I portrayed Ray accurately (in The Salt Path), but more whether Ray would think that I would portray her accurately, which I'm not sure was necessarily what I cared about with the other ones as much. It was more about public opinion. But it was important to me that Ray felt like I'd captured an essence of her."
Winn said: "Obviously I was quite shocked when I was told it was going to be Gillian because my vision of her is as she is, absolutely perfect, beautiful, glamorous. How is she going to capture me at my most raw moments?"
But she added that the screen relationship between Anderson and Jason Isaacs, who plays Moth, was "completely believable".
This Morning airs on ITV1 at 10am on weekdays. The Salt Path comes to UK cinemas on 30 May.