‘X-Files’ Reboot From ‘Sinners’ Director Casts Its Lead FBI Agent

Whenever a buzzy new show is in development, there are bound to be casting rumors. But now the truth is out there—the upcoming X-Files reboot from Sinners director Ryan Coogler has cast its co-lead. Himesh Patel will star alongside Danielle Deadwyler in the Hulu series. 

Patel, known for roles in Yesterday, Tenet, and the acclaimed HBO Max series Station Eleven, will play an FBI agent who will find himself investigating strange, paranormal cases in the reboot. News of Patel's casting broke on Thursday. Deadwyler, an actress who starred in the films Till and The Piano Lesson (and who also was one of the leads of Station Eleven), joined the cast in February.

Coogler, director of Black Panther, Creed, and Sinners—the last of which set the records for the most Oscar nominations of all time with 16 nods at this most recent Academy Awards—will write and direct the pilot episode. Few details are available at this time, though it seems based on the official synopsis that Patel and Deadwyler's characters will be following in the footsteps of Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) from the iconic original '90s series.

"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,” the synopsis reads. 

The X-Files reboot does not have a premiere date yet, but it will eventually be streaming on Hulu. Patel will next appear in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey when the Greek mythology epic hits theaters in July. 

The X-Files Have Been Revived Before, Though Coogler's Show Seems Different

The X-Files premiered on Fox in 1993 and ran for nine seasons before ending in 2002. That wasn't the end of the UFO-chasing, cryptid encounters, and conspiracy theories. Series creator Chris Carter brough Mudler and Scully back for two films—one during the show's initial run in 1998 and the second in 2008 a few years after the initial ending. The series came back again for a 10th season in 2016 and an 11th in 2018, once again with Carter at the helm. Reviews of the revived seasons were mixed. 

The upcoming Hulu reboot, though, will not have Carter in charge, though he is part of the production as a non-writing executive producer. Coogler is behind the pilot, and his production company Proximity Media is producing it, and Jennifer Yale (The Copenhagen Test,Your Friends and Neighbors) will be the showrunner. 

All this means that the new X-Files has the potential to be a fresher take on the material than past revivals, especially with new leads in Patel and Deadwyler. It remains to be seen if Duchovny or Anderson will be involved—though she has read the script and says it's great.