Ryan Coogler’s X-Files Reboot Finally Has Its Star
A renowned director's take on a classic sci-fi show has finally found its leading lady.
The line between movies and TV has only gotten blurrier in recent years. With streaming, movies and TV are happily coexisting, and prestige TV shows are often called “10 hour movies.” With this shift, talent is also considering both formats equal, paving the way for traditional “movie stars” appearing in series.
One of the biggest movie directors in recent years is moving to TV in a big way, bringing a classic ‘90s sci-fi series back for a new reboot. Now, it’s coming together with the perfect star for a new chapter.
Ryan Coogler will oversee a write and direct an X-Files reboot pilot for Hulu.
Ryan Coogler, the director behind Creed, Black Panther, and Sinners is the showrunner behind a new reboot of The X-Files, the classic case-of-the-week sci-fi series that ran from 1993 to 2002. Thanks to Deadline, we finally have our first details about the series. Hulu has officially ordered a pilot of the new series that will be written and directed by Coogler, and the first star is attached: Danielle Deadwyler. Much like Coogler, Deadwyler is primarily a movie actress, but she does have some experience with sci-fi TV, as she appeared in HBO’s post-apocalyptic series Station Eleven.
The newly-rebooted series has the following description: “two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents — one played by Deadwyler — form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
That long-shuttered division is clearly a reference to the X-Files unit, the real-world division where the FBI’s lowest priority cases are sent. In the original X-Files series, these usually paranormal cases were investigated by militant believer Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and skeptical agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson).
Danielle Deadwyler will star as one of two FBI agents in this new series.
This series won’t be the first X-Files revival. In 2016, the series was brought back for Season 10, with Duchovny and Anderson reprising their roles. However, while that series was merely a continuation of the previous story, Coogler’s version will be a full reboot, starting with Season 1 and depicting brand new characters.
As exciting as this movie is, it’s also relatively risky. A new X-Files series will always be compared to the original, and even the 2016 revival was considered inferior to the original show. Will Coogler be able to revive this old format and make it fresh for a 2026 audience? It’s a tall task, but so far all signs point to yes.
After all, Coogler is the guy who helped revive the Rocky franchise by focusing it on a different character altogether and single-handedly made a new case for the vampire movie with Sinners. It may have only been a decade since the last X-Files revival, but this could be an entirely new lease on life.
