The X-Files Returns: Pilot Wrapped and Director’s Cut on the Way

Himesh Patel, co-star alongside Danielle Deadwyler, has confirmed that filming on the pilot of the new X-Files has ended, although Hulu has not yet ordered a full season.

The project, produced by Onyx Collective, 20th Television, and Proximity Media, starts again from two new FBI agents assigned to a forgotten division dedicated to unexplained cases. By avoiding a direct comparison with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, the reboot is looking for an identity of its own.

The production, however, has chosen not to sever ties with the original imaginary: the pilot was filmed in Vancouver, the foundational location of the show’s early seasons, and Chris Carter is involved as executive producer. Alongside the leads, major names have also been announced, including Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, Amy Madigan, Devery Jacobs, Lochlyn Munro, and Tantoo Cardinal — a sign that Hulu is treating the project as something more ambitious than a simple nostalgic revival.

Chris Carter Re-edits The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The X-Files: I Want to Believe, the second theatrical film in the saga, has for years remained one of the most controversial chapters in the universe created by Carter. Released in 2008, the film chose to distance itself almost entirely from the alien mythology in order to tell a more self-contained story, suspended between investigation, faith, guilt, and psychological horror.

That very sideways nature made it difficult to place: too light on mythology for those looking for the grand return of Mulder and Scully, too restrained to truly establish itself as a horror thriller. Carter, however, has repeatedly explained that he had originally imagined a darker, more disturbing film, later toned down to secure a PG-13 rating suitable for a broader audience.

The new director’s cut is therefore intended as an attempt to recover that missing horror version, not merely as an extended edition like the one already released on home video at the time. The “Carter Cut” had been announced for Disney+ on June 11, 2026, but its release was later postponed due to last-minute adjustments, and there is still no clear communication regarding the Italian catalogue.

A Narrative and Symbolic Bridge Between Relaunch and Franchise Memory

If Coogler’s reboot attempts to move The X-Files forward, entrusting the FBI basement to new agents and a contemporary sensibility, the director’s cut of I Want to Believe instead tries to mend a fracture that has remained open in the history of the franchise. That does not necessarily mean, however, that this is merely an act of restoration. It may also serve to put back into circulation elements, themes, and atmospheres capable of creating a thread with the new direction imagined by Coogler.

It is a significant combination, because it perfectly captures the current condition of many historic franchises: it is no longer enough to reactivate them; one must also negotiate with their memory. The original series was not merely a paranormal procedural, but a way of telling the story of American fear before conspiracy became everyday noise, the language of social media, and permanent political matter.

The real challenge, then, will not simply be bringing unexplained cases, creatures in the shadows, and government conspiracies back to the screen. It will be understanding whether The X-Files can still generate unease in a present that seems to have absorbed many of its obsessions. Coogler will have to prove that the myth can continue without Mulder and Scully; Carter, by contrast, will try to prove that even a nearly twenty-year-old film may still be hiding a truth that remained out there, beyond the edit.