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Gillian Anderson has teased a possible X Files return by revealing a conversation with director Ryan Coogler about the forthcoming reboot.
The Sex Education actor, who starred in the original 1990s series as FBI agent Dana Scully, has said she told Black Panther filmmaker Coogler, who is directing the remake, to call her when he starts the casting process.
Speaking on ITV’s This Morning on Wednesday (30 April), Anderson said: “I spoke to him, and what I said was, ‘If anyone were to do it, I think you are the perfect person and best of luck, call me.’”
“At some point, if the phone rings and it’s good and it feels like the right time, perhaps,” she said.
Coogler, whose latest film Sinners is riding high at the top of the box office, and is one of the year’s most acclaimed blockbusters, recently confirmed that he had spoken to Anderson about the project.
He also revealed that, now Sinners is out of the way, the reboot is “immediately next” on his slate.
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time and I’m fired up to get back to it,” he said on the Last Podcast on the Left. “Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f***ing scary.”
Speaking about Anderson, he added: “She’s incredible and fingers crossed there.”
“We’re going to try to make something really great, bro, and make something for the real X-Files fans and maybe find some new ones.”
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The original hit sci-fi series, which ran for nine seasons between 1993 and 2002 (and two revived seasons in 2016), followed FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they investigated paranormal activity.
News of the reboot was confirmed in 2023, but the show’s creator, Chris Carter, had suggested at the time that Anderson and her co-star, David Duchovny (who played agent Fox Mulder), would not return.
Last year, Carter revealed that the show’s producers had originally been hesitant to recruit Anderson, because she did not fit their idea of “sexy”.
Carter was asked, “Where is the sex appeal?” about Anderson.
“Even though Gillian’s beautiful, she wasn’t their idea of sexy,” he explained. “First, because they didn’t understand what I was trying to do with the show. And she was an unknown, so that never helps.”
Anderson went on to become a firm fan favourite, with her performance as agent Scully successfully igniting her acting career.
She has since landed roles in Netflix’s The Crown, in which she depicted former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher; she played sex therapist Jean Milburn in Sex Education and starred as DI Stella Gibson in the BBC drama series The Fall.
Carter said he had a “really nice conversation” with Coogler when the reboot was first pitched to Fox.
“I just asked him what his ideas were, and he told me, and I said, ‘Those sound like good ideas,’” he recalled.
Coogler’s previous credits include Fruitvale Station, Creed, the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and most recently, the 1930s-set vampire horror Sinners.
English (US) ·