BTS Facts About The X-Files That'll Make You Want To Believe

There is no series out there quite like "The X-Files." With intrinsically compelling monster-of-the-week episodes and an epic, galaxy-shifting mythology, this series has it all. Primarily starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, "The X-Files" was decades ahead of its time in its approach to serialized genre television, serving as an interesting bridge between shows riddled with standalone episodes and those without. After airing for nine seasons on television — with a feature film smack in the middle — the series returned briefly to the big screen in 2008, followed by a shortened two-season revival less than a decade later.

More than anything, "The X-Files" challenged us to believe in something bigger, to connect the dots that we'd likely have ignored, and to fight the future — if said future is indeed worth fighting. Of course, there are dozens of reasons why we love Mulder, Scully, and the rest of the gang, but here are a few interesting case files you might not have read before. So sharpen your pencils and prepare to launch, because here are some behind-the-scenes facts about "The X-Files" you've got to believe.

By the time "The X-Files" reached its seventh season, David Duchovny felt as if his time as Fox Mulder had come to an end. To be fair, Season 7 set itself up as the show's final hour, furthering a Mulder/Scully romance, giving Mulder closure regarding his sister's abduction, and effectively closing out the alien mythology story. It even bookended the season with Mulder and Scully's very first X-File together. So, when the series was renewed, no one really knew where "The X-Files" would go next. Nevertheless, Duchovny wanted out and was famously replaced by Robert Patrick's Agent John Doggett. 

Despite his refusal to return full-time, Duchovny was still heavily involved in the final two years of "The X-Files" initial run. In Season 8, Duchovny appears as Mulder in 12 of the 21 episodes, a far cry from flat-out abandoning the series. Admittedly, Duchovny is absent for the majority of Season 9, but the actor returned for the two-part series finale and even directed the 16th episode "William," on which he also receives a story credit and appears via an uncredited cameo. Mulder also shows up in "Jump The Shark" through archive footage, and obviously returned as Mulder for future films and seasons, proving that "The X-Files" always needed its leading man.

Conspiracy theories are all the rage nowadays. Some may be plausible, while others are outlandish, but there's no doubt that shows like "The X-Files" encourage us to raise a few eyebrows. While the series dove headfirst into the world of conspiracies, it's easy to write off every one of them as being fictitious. However, upon further speculation, there may be something to some of Mulder's ramblings after all.  Since the revival series ended, the Pentagon has officially disclosed hundreds of UFO reports, including among their own personnel, and some officials are now theorizing that an alien mothership may be watching us from the other end of the galaxy. 

No doubt, Mulder would have a field day in our post-disclosure world, though even the original series was ahead of its time. Episodes like "Paper Clip" highlight government secrets, such as Operation Paperclip, which conscribed Nazi scientists to work for America following World War II. Likewise, "The Pine Bluff Variant" sees Mulder infiltrate a terrorist cell that turns out to be a cover for a government bioweapons test — Not too far off from the FBI paying informants to stir potential terrorists to criminal action. "The X-Files" was at its best when it reminded us that the truth was always way out there.

Okay, Stephen King actually co-wrote an episode of "The X-Files," but the prolific horror author's influence still stands. At the height of the show's popularity with fans and critics, they welcomed King onboard to tell a spooky tale. Like almost every one of his projects, the episode "Chinga" takes place in rural Maine, though this one focuses on a young girl and her terrifying demonic doll. Interestingly, this "Chucky/Child's Play" knockoff wasn't as well received as the acclaimed King had hoped, and is often referenced as one of the series' earliest missteps.

Nevertheless, King's episode has gone down in infamy. According to "Resist or Serve: The Official Guide to The X-Files, Vol. 4" by Andy Meisler, King approached David Duchovny as a fan, hoping to write an episode of the show. One thing led to another, and eventually, series creator Chris Carter hired the novelist for a single episode. Sadly, the king of horror's title didn't exactly translate to the small screen.

After the original series finale aired in 2002, "The X-Files" took a six-year hiatus until the release of the second feature film, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe." While many anticipated a return to the alien mythology story, especially in light of the prophesied 2012 colonization of Earth, the film went a different route entirely, opting to tell a standalone X-File in the same vein as a supernatural thriller. Following the film, Chris Carter told IGN that he was interested in revisiting the mythology in a third feature, though he wasn't taking another movie for granted. "There's a date in the 'X-Files' mythology — 2012 — that is very important," he said. "We'd certainly love to do something with that!" 

Both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson expressed hopes to see the alien plot continued, but by 2014, Anderson no longer believed the invasion date was relevant. After the success of other revivals such as "24: Live Another Day" and "Heroes Reborn," Fox announced a six-episode event series instead, with Duchovny and Anderson returning to their iconic roles. Rather than a purely mythology-based story, the revival seasons bookend monster-of-the-week episodes with a longer arc, hoping to recapture the series' earliest (and most successful) seasons.

Did you know that Chris Carter had another mildly successful show that aired on Fox in the mid to late-1990s? Starring Lance Henriksen as former FBI profiler Frank Black, "Millennium" was a depressing delight. Set in Seattle, the show follows Frank and his family after he joins the Millennium Group, a doomsday cult of former law enforcement officers who consult on various homicides. The series, which ran for three seasons on Fox, was profoundly dark, which meant that the network didn't promote it as intently as they did "The X-Files." Though there were some crossovers between the two shows, they couldn't have been more different, though that was a good thing.

Sadly, the show was canceled after its third season, meaning that "Millennium" didn't even make it to the millennium, but that didn't stop Frank forever. His story concluded in "The X-Files" Season 7 episode "Millennium," in which he teams up with Mulder & Scully to stop the Group's final attempt to kickstart Armageddon before the year 2000 kicks off, "Night of the Living Dead"-style. Nearly 15 years later, writer Joe Harris resurrected the character for an arc in the "The X-Files: Season 10" comic book, which spawned a five-issue "Millennium" limited series.

"The X-Files" was a source of inspiration for other projects, spawning plenty of other movies and television. "Final Destination," famously helmed by "X-Files" alums Glen Morgan and James Wong, was one of them. Morgan and Wong got involved after the creator, Jeffrey Riddick, had first written the idea as a spec script for "The X-Files." After Riddick was told to rewrite it as a feature film, "Final Destination" was born, with Wong and Morgan in tow. But this wasn't the only project helmed by "X-Files" alumni. Following the series finale, writers Vince Gilligan and Thomas Schnauz joked about starting a meth lab in a Winnebago and traveling throughout the Southwest, an idea that sparked Gilligan's first visions of "Breaking Bad's" Walter White (via The Guardian).

Once the series entered development, Gilligan — who had written 30 "X-Files" episodes previously — cast Bryan Cranston in the title role, who had previously guest starred in his "X-Files" episode "Drive." Likewise, director/producer Kim Manners moved on and soon found himself working alongside Eric Kripke on "Supernatural," a series already very similar to "The X-Files." It wasn't long before other "X-Files" crew members, including directors David Nutter and Thomas J. Wright, joined the show, which ran for 15 consecutive years on television.

Though "The X-Files" has tried the spin-off route before, and even attempted to pass on the torch from Mulder and Scully to other agents (both in the original run and the revival), the series has never succeeded in growing into a larger franchise. But Chris Carter hasn't given up hope. Though Gillian Anderson is out, Carter has been working on some other "X-Files" projects that might not need our favorite leading lady. 

In 2020, "The X-Files: Albuquerque," an animated series about a group of agents tasked with working cases too weird or boring for traditional teams, was announced. While there hasn't been much news on that front in a while, especially once Disney acquired Fox, the project is still reportedly in development. Given David Duchovny's openness to returning, it seems plausible that we could see Mulder again at some point, possibly in animation, even if Scully is busy elsewhere.