The Hollywood Reporter had this to say about the pilot episode of “The X-Files” in 1993: “Though the show works with a certain unintended camp kick, at the moment, ‘X’ doesn’t mark the spot where viewers can find involving drama by way of Stephen King-esque actions.” Fortunately, TV fans became obsessed and blew up the horror thriller into a cultural phenomenon. 11 seasons and two films later, “The X-Files” is one of the most revered IPs.
Chris Carter’s second feature-length film, 2008’s “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” grossed $20.9 million domestically and $69 million globally. While it became a bonafide hit, Carter wishes it could have stuck to the vision he wrote in the script. “I just got the go-ahead yesterday to do a director’s cut,” Carter revealed on the “Fail Better with David Duchovny” podcast in 2025. “I can’t tell you how excited I am about this.”
He went on to add that he had made the film “too scary,” according to Fox executives. “They wanted a PG-13 movie. We thought, ‘Ok, we’ve satisfied their demands.’ Now, I have a chance to go back and make the scary move that I always intended to make.”
“The X-Files” fans’ prayers have been answered, and the 2008 film heads to streaming this summer.
‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ Coming to Hulu
“The X-Files: I Want to Believe” heads to Hulu on August 14, 2026.
The film, which also gets a title upgrade to “The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn” (translated to Victor Frankenstein), will “faithfully restore the filmmaker’s original vision,” according to the initial report on Gizmodo. Disney experienced several delays in releasing Carter’s vision due to the technical fine-tuning of the nearly finished version.
During a panel at Spacecon 2026, Duchovny also expressed his excitement over the director’s cut. “I think there was a lot of stuff that happened around the release of that movie that Chris massaged into a shape that maybe was not the only shape that he wanted,” the actor said.
The film follows Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) reunion after Mulder’s professional exile. When a missing person’s report breaks, they find themselves tangled in another mystery. Their investigation leads them to a priest (Billy Connolly) with psychic visions.
Ryan Coogler Readies Reboot
Award-winning director Ryan Coogler added eight actors in guest roles for “The X-Files” reboot in May. Those are Amy Madigan (“Weapons”), Steve Buscemi (“Reservoir Dogs,” “Fargo”), Ben Foster (“Hustle,” “Six Feet Under”), Devery Jacobs (“Blood Quantum,” “Forbidden Fruits”), Lochlyn Munro (“Freddy vs. Jason,” “Totally Killer”), Tantoo Cardinal (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Joel D. Montgrand (“True Detective,” “Avatar the Last Airbender”) and Sofia Grace Clifton (“The Muppets Mayhem”).
Coogler confirmed he was at the helm during an appearance on “Last Podcast on the Left,” “I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it,” he said. “Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f***ing scary. We’re gonna try to make something really great and really be something for the real X-Files fans, and maybe find some new ones.”
In February, Hulu officially ordered a pilot episode with Danielle Deadwyler (“The Woman in the Yard”) and Himesh Patel (“The Odyssey,” “Tenet”) cast as the lead investigators. “The X-Files” reboot synopsis reads: “Two very different FBI agents form a bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
Any other details, including whether Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will make cameos, are unknown.
