David Farnor | On 10, Aug 2016

The X-Files may return for more episodes, Fox has teased.

The broadcaster brought back the sci-fi franchises for a limited event series at the start of 2016, with the show airing on Channel 5 in the UK and Amazon Prime Video quickly snapping up the rights to the show’s suddenly valuable back catalogue.

Now, after much speculation about the show’s renewal once more, Fox has confirmed that they’re in talks to do further episodes.

“We’re in conversations that intentionally we could do more,” Fox TV Group co-chairman and CEO Dana Walden told the press at the broadcaster’s Television Critics Association panel. “I don’t imagine it being a full season of ‘The X-Files,’ but I would be really happy if we were able to get eight to 10 episodes.”

“It was really the limitations of David [Duchovny] and Gillian [Anderson] and Chris’ [Carter] schedules,” she added. “Gillian lives in the UK, David lives in New York and California, and we do the show in Vancouver. Chris lives up north. So it was just trying to coordinate a time where they all carve out a period to be in Vancouver.”

Fox TV Studios President David Madden added to Variety that the broadcaster is “in significant talks with the three principals” about returning to film more otherworldly outings.

“We said before it aired that we would love to do more, and we are over the moon with the performance. So far, the response has been really encouraging.”

David Duchovny took the chance to tease fans with further episodes on Twitter:

Happy Birthday, Gillian. If you see Dana, tell her Fox says she might wanna polish up the ol' badge soon-ish. Love, D

— David Duchovny (@davidduchovny) August 9, 2016

 

For more on The X-Files, read our reviews of the 2016 season’s episodes here.

 

 

Channel 5 will air The X-Files’ 2016 revival on UK TV in February

10th December 2015

Update: The X-Files will air on Channel 5 in February 2016. Channel 5 has now released this trailer:

Mulder and Scully are heading to Channel 5. Yes, The X-Files’ 2016 revival has found a UK TV home – and it’s not the one you may have been expecting.

The series, which originally aired on Sky 1 in the UK for its first nine seasons, was in all likelihood going to be snapped up by the pay-TV channel once more. After all, the same happened with 24: Live Another Day, another 20th Century Fox series.

Now, though, Channel 5 has swooped to snap up the new, limited run. The six-episode event series sees both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their roles as FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They’re reunited with series creator Chris Carter, who is the writer on the show, alongside Glen Morgan, both of them also serving as executive producers. (Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis will also return as Walter Skinner and The Smoking Man respectively.)

The revival of the show was first announced in March 2015 by Fox, marking the sci-fi series’ return to our screens for the first time in over a decade – although the show did have a spin-off movie, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, in 2008. Both stars have gone on to many, varied projects, with Duchovy enjoying success on US TV shows such as Californication, and even publishing a novel, while Anderson has won acclaim in everything from The BBC’s Great Expectations and The Fall to a stellar performance in the Young Vic’s recent version of A Streetcar Named Desire.

13 years since it was cancelled, though, The X-Files remains one of the longest-running sci-fi series in network television history, bagging 16 Emmy Awards, five Golden Globes and a Peabody Award in the course of its run. It is, quite simply, a big deal.

Channel 5’s acquisition, then, saw the broadcaster fend off a wide range of rivals, with everyone from Netflix and Amazon to Sky rumoured to be after the UK rights.

“Securing the UK premiere of the hugely anticipated return of The X-Files is a major coup for the channel and will create one of the television events of 2016,” said Ben Frow, director of programmes at Channel 5, in a statement to the press. “This acquisition underlines our ambition to deliver a diverse slate of brilliant, must-see programming on Channel 5.”

The deal also includes The X-Files Essential Collection, a group of 20 episodes selected by Carter that aims to take viewers through the story of the original show – a quick catch-up marathon for those who weren’t around in 1993, when it first premiered.

The deal was negotiated by Katie Keenan, Head of Acquisitions for Channel 5 and Viacom UK, and 20th Century Fox Television Distribution UK. It follows a similar landmark deal for the UK rights to Heroes Reborn, which will air on Channel 5’s sister channel, 5*.

The show will debut on Sunday 24th January in the US. There is no confirmed UK TV air date for The X-Files revival yet, although Channel 5 says it will air “early in 2016”. With broadcasters increasingly reducing their windows to screen shows as close to their US debut as possible, fans in Britain will hopefully not have too long a wait to watch it. The good news is that the series will definitely be available to stream post-broadcast on Channel 5’s VOD service, Demand 5 – and will be completely free.

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