New films are in the works!

After the success of the 1998 feature X-Files: Fight the Future, many expected that creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson would bank on that success for an immediate follow-up. Nearly seven years have passed with little development and, for all intents and purposes, the chance for X-Files fans to see the stories continue appeared slim at best.


In the past couple of years, talk has again come up of another feature film, with Duchovny himself even mentioning earlier this year that it might be happening. Today, during IGN FilmForce's interview with David Duchovny, he all but confirmed a return to the series, possibly as early as next year. "Well, there's no script, but Chris tells me it's like early next year. I mean, you know, the guy wrote 150 of them. He could have a script by the end of the day. The fact that there's no script or treatment is not dissuasive, to use an X-File word. I would imagine, since the three major parties are willing; Chris, myself and Gillian, I know it will happen and I would imagine it will happen early next year. It's just a matter of everybody getting their needs met I guess."

When asked whether this film will tie up many of the questions still left to ponder by the show and film, Duchovny immediately responded with a definitive no. "No, that's why it's a franchise. That's why you've got to make three or four of them before we all get too laughably old to do those roles."

When asked whether Doggett, the character played by Robert Patrick after Duchovny left the show, might return in the next movie, Duchovny has no clear answer. "That's not up to me. I think if Doggett, if that's part of the story, for sure. Doggett's an interesting character within the X-Files universe. It's always the story that mandates the character's involvement in the X-Files, whose issue is being provoked by this case, whether it's Scully religiosity or Mulder's sister, that kind of thing."

Fans of The X-Files will be thrilled to learn that this film is not planned as a final installment for the series, but rather as the first of as many as three to four more new films. "No, I don't think there's plans. I think it's a standalone. I don't think it will even address [[[]]ending the series[]]. I think, by the by, it will address, but I think mostly, my feeling is it will be, and I don't know because I am not writing it, is it will be one of the great standalone episodes. It's a case, more like a Silence of the Lambs, you know, standalone movie and not one of the mythology movies."

The success and longevity of the X-Files storylines has transcended any expectations those involved, including Duchovny, could have ever predicted. "What I take away from that show more than the popularity and the influences is the sheer quality of the show when I hold it up against any other television show in the history of television. The production values, the storytelling, the frame that can hold from comedy to thriller to horror, there's just no other show like it and I don't see another show coming along because they only make, they're making TV cheaper and cheaper and that stuff has gotten more expensive. The current taste for what I call unscripted shows, I don't call them reality because I don't think they have anything to do with that, but they are unscripted apparently, they're cheap."

Before he left the room, Duchovny was asked what he considered to be the ultimate season of the show, perhaps as a starter for the uninitiated to pick up on DVD. "The best year for me? I think six. I just think it had the gambit from humor to horror to thrillers. I just think we did everything that year."