The truth really is going to be out there again...

Twentieth Century Fox has announced the official release date for The X-Files movie sequel. As reported on IGN.com, the film will open July 25, 2008. Based on the hit Fox TV series, the plot of the follow-up to the 1998 film The X-Files: Fight the Future so far is a tightly controlled mystery. We do know that it will be a MOTW -- a "monster of the week"-type standalone story.

Show creator Chris Carter and show writer Frank Spotnitz, who wrote Fight the Future, collaborated on the sequel script and stars Gillian Anderson (who played Dana Scully) and David Duchovny (who portrayed Fox Mulder) have signed to return. The first movie was directed by Rob Bowman, who directed a number of X-Files episodes. No director has been announced yet for the sequel.

The X-Files debuted on Fox on September 10, 1993. Filmed in Vancouver until production shifted to L.A. in season 6, the show ran for 9 seasons, with the finale airing May 19, 2002. The first movie was released in June 1998, between seasons 5 and 6. Starting with a smaller audience, the show later became a breakout hit and won numerous awards. The X-Files also inspired one of the first large internet-based fandoms; in fact it was word of mouth online that helped bolster the show's viewership. The series has inspired a a decade and a half of fanfiction, discussion, fanvids, and other fan works.

The show has been off the air for years, but there's a lot of anticipation surrounding the sequel, and devotion to the series is still going strong.