Robert Patrick may return as Doggett for The X-Files’ 11th season

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Although Annabeth Gish made an appearance as Agent Monica Reyes in the last years six-episode revival of The X-Files, her former partner, Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), was nowhere to be found. Once an expanded 11th season of The X-Files was announced by Fox, it was hoped that Robert Patrick would finally get the chance to return, especially as he had previously seemed interested in rejoining the world of The X-Files. While speaking with TVLine, series creator Chris Carter revealed that Doggett was slated to return in one of the upcoming season's early installments, but due to Robert Patrick's commitments on CBS' Scorpion, he had to be written out.

I actually wrote him into an episode, but then I found out he wasn’t going to be available to us [because of Scorpion] so I had to write him out of the episode… Scorpion is his first priority.

But, in typical X-Files fashion, Chris Carter teased, "That's not to say you won't see him this season…" Production is about to begin on the sixth episode of The X-Files' 10-episode season, so there's still time for Doggett to make an appearance. Robert Patrick confirmed that it was a scheduling conflict with Scorpion which left him unavailable for The X-Files, but added that he's "game" to make a delayed return. Although Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny certainly are the heart and soul of The X-Files, I quickly grew to embrace Robert Patrick's Agent Doggett upon his debut in the eighth season, especially as he represented a breath of fresh air in a series which was quickly growing stale.

With an expanded number of episodes, it will be nice to see The X-Files get a little more breathing room than it had last season; plus, with two mythology episodes and eight standalone episodes, we'll likely get a nice mix of everything, but the search for Mulder and Scully's son, William, who was given up for adoption fifteen years ago, will be the big arc of the season. Chris Carter said that "William has been an absent center," but that he "will come to the fore."

The 11th season of The X-Files is slated to debut on Fox in January 2018.