For close to three decades, audiences the world over watched FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder and Special Agent Dana Scully breathlessly uncover the truth that they insisted was out there on the cult tv classicThe X-Files. Now, a new team of agents are set to follow in their footsteps, according to TV Line, in an animated spinoff series titledThe X-Files: Albuquerquethat is currently in development at Fox.
The X-Filescreator Chris Carter is attached to the new animated series in the capacity of executive producer, although he is not going to be the writer or showrunner. Fox has granted a script and presentation commitment to the series. OlderX-Filesfans will be disappointed to learn David Duchovny’s Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Scully will not be part of the spinoff. Rather,The X-Files: Albuquerquewill focus on a group of misfit agents who are assigned paranormal cases too wacky or absurd for the higher-ups in theX-Filesprogram to bother with.
The show has found its writers in Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko, best known forNetflix’s Paradise PD, who are writing the pilot script and are attached as executive producers alongside Carter and Gabe Rotter, who wrote for the originalThe X-Files.
Audiences were first introduced toThe X-Filesin 1993. The original run of the show ended in 2002 after nine seasons. Rather than fading from public memory, the series kept running on the air for the next decade, finding new audiences in every country it was introduced in. Demand kept rising for moreThe X-Filesstories, resulting in two additional revival seasons that sawScully and Mulderreuniting on screen after more than a decade.
While Fox has indicated there will be no more seasons in the revival series, it is clear the studio feels there is much potential to be mined from the franchise. In theory,The X-Files: Albuquerquesounds a lot like therecently launched Star Trek: Lower Deckson CBS Access, which is an animatedStar Trekspinoff that takes a more light-hearted approach to the sci-fi series.
It remains to be seen ifThe X-Files: Albuquerquewill prove to be a successful addition to the world ofThe X-Files. The main selling point of the original show had been the dynamic between Mulder and Scully, and the promise of a larger, overarching mystery storyline at a time when tv shows believed in keeping each episode self-contained.
If the animated spinoff does well, it will prove there is more to the franchise than the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ dynamic between Mulder and Scully that the original show teased viewers with for a decade. And if enough people tune in to watch the spinoff, it might rekindle interest in making a third revival season for the originalThe X-Files, which Carter has hinted he wants to do in a past interview:
“I think there are lots more stories to tell and ways to tell them. I’m leaving this as a giant cliffhanger, and Gillian has announced that she’s not coming back. Hard-core X-Files fans know there have been no real endings on the show.”
