Ryan Coogler's 'X-Files' Reboot Gets Pilot Order from Hulu, Danielle Deadwyler Set to Star
On the heels of the director making BAFTA history as the first Black winner of the original screenplay category, Ryan Coogler’s making headlines again. The acclaimed director’s much anticipated X-Files reboot is officially moving forward, with Hulu confirming the pilot order with Variety earlier today. We’ve also learned that Danielle Deadwyler will star in the series. These updates come three years after the project was initially announced.
Though it’s too early for many solid details, the official logline for the series is “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.” While said logline might not be news for anyone familiar with the original series, there’s a comfort in knowing that we’ll be rejoining Mulder and Scully at the beginning of their story again.
Coogler, who will write, direct and executive produce the pilot under his company Proximity Media, was drawn to X-Files for the same reason he was drawn to the Rocky franchise: his connection with his parents. While his relationship with his father gave him the connection to the heartfelt fighter Rocky Balboa and, eventually Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed, it was watching X-Files with his mom that made him want to reboot the project.
Jennifer Yale (Apple TV+’s See, FX’s Legion) will act as showrunner and executive producer on the reboot, with Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler (also of Coogler’s Proximity Media) and original X-Files creator Chris Carter will be executive producing on the project as well, with Simon Harris taking on a co-executive producer role. The pilot will be produced by both Onyx Collective and 20th Television (the TV arm studio arm of 20th Century Studios) and is a part of Coogler’s overall deal with Disney.
Currently, original series stars Gillian Anderson (Scully) and David Duchovny (Mulder) have not been announced as connected to the series.