FOX Reopens The X-Files For Event Season

Big news in science fiction television this week: FOX is reopening The X-Files, the iconic 1990s series that helped put the network on the map and redefine genre-themed storytelling on television.

Series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will both return for the revival, which will begin filming this summer for a likely bow in 2016 — fourteen years after the show went off the air. The X-Files creator and executive producer Chris Carter will helm.

FOX is bringing the Emmy-winning show back as a 6-episode event, much like it did with the revival of 24 last year. 24: Live Another Day didn’t get great ratings, though it was evidently well-received by fans and critics.

“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” Carter said. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”

The X-Files aired from 1993 until 2002 and generated two feature films: 1998’s The X-Files was released during the show’s run, and most recently Fox Mulder and Dana Scully appeared in 2008’s The X-Files: I Want To Believe. (The latter film largely avoided the show’s alien invasion mythology and told a stand-alone story.)

Read the full announcement at FOX.com, and stay tuned to SciFi Stream for more on the X-Files revival!