Skip to main content

The first script for The X-Files revival made David Duchovny cry

You’re not alone if you refuse to believe a revival of The X-Files is actually happening until you’re watching it on your television, but early word on the project has provided some justification for optimism — especially when it comes to the emotional gravity of the reunion.

According to the show’s alien-savvy FBI Agent Fox Mulder, aka David Duchovny, just the first page was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

Recommended Videos

“I got the first script this morning,” Duchovny told EW.com during a recent interview. “I just read it about an hour ago and I started crying reading the first page. It was just so strange to see the names on the page. It had nothing to do with the script itself. It was just like, I’d been talking about this for a long time. We’d been planning it for a long time. It took a long time to get all the people in the same place and get the deal with Fox. So let’s say two years we’ve been talking about doing it.”

“Now it’s the fun part,” he continued. “Now we actually get to do it. That was nice and strangely emotional for me, and I’ll have to figure out how to use that [in the performance].”

Set to span six episodes, the limited series will once again air on FOX and bring back veteran series stars Duchovny (as Mulder) and Gillian Anderson (as FBI Agent Dana Scully) as investigators of the unknown, as well as supporting cast members Mitch Pileggi (as Walter Skinner) and William B. Davis (as Cigarette Smoking Man), among other returning characters. The X-Files creator Chris Carter also returns as the head writer and showrunner, along with original series writers Glen Morgan and James Wong.

Sadly (or fortunately, depending on how spoiler-conscious you are), Duchovny couldn’t reveal too much information about the series and what form it will take — narratively or contextually — when it returns to television after 13 years.

“I can tell you absolutely nothing—and it’s fantastic,” said Duchovny when pressed for details.

However, the actor did confirm that there will be a balance of standalone episodes and over-arching mythology spanning the series’ six-episode revival.

“Even though there’s only six [episodes], there will be a mix,” he said. “It’s not really The X-Files without the mythology.”

Rick Marshall
Former Contributing Editor, Entertainment
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
Pearl, the prequel to Ti West’s X, receives first trailer
pearl x prequel trailer mia goth in poster

Director Ti West frightened audiences this past March with his '70s slasher film, X. Now, the A24 film is getting a prequel as it explores the origins of X's main villain in Pearl. Starring Mia Goth, who reprises her role as Pearl, the prequel's trailer highlights "the X-traordinary origin story" of the murderous character from X and how it foreshadowed the events that would happen at the farm 60 years later.

X showcased a group of young filmmakers in 1979 attempting to make a pornographic film in rural Texas. While shooting the film on a farm, the elderly owners of the land, Howard and Pearl, soon learn about the adult film, and set out on a killing spree, murdering members of the crew one by one. Maxine, also played by Goth, was the only member of the crew to successfully escape after she ran over Pearl's head with a truck.

Read more
SpaceX birthday video celebrates its first 20 years
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX has shared a highlights video celebrating its 20th birthday. The footage features key moments from its first two decades of operations, and as you’ll see, it’s been a wild ride.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1503380291976531968

Read more
SpaceX aiming for first commercial spacewalk this year
The Polaris Dawn crew.

A billionaire entrepreneur who spent several days in orbit last year as part of SpaceX’s first civilian-only crew is planning additional missions that will include the first commercial spacewalk.

Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, said this week he hopes the privately funded space program, called Polaris, will help to rapidly advance human spaceflight programs while at the same time raising funds for causes on Earth.

Read more