Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is developing a reboot of The X-Files, but the world has changed considerably since the original series debuted over thirty years ago, presenting a new set of challenges.
While chatting with Inverse, The X-Files creator Chris Carter spoke about the reboot and the difficulties Ryan Coogler will face with telling “conspiracy” stories. The original show arrived in the wake of Watergate and the JKF assassination, but conspiracies have taken on a different tone in recent years. “Everything’s a conspiracy,” Carter said. “No one knows what the truth is. It’s completely subjective and relative now.“
Carter brought up Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, who recently found herself the subject of conspiracy theories following her surgery and public absence, later coming out to reveal she had been diagnosed with cancer. “Can you imagine, first of all, being sick — but then everyone’s got a take on it?” Carter said. “The most private thing becomes the most public thing, and then the most misunderstood thing.” Carter also wondered if The X-Files negatively contributed to the “question everything” mentality. “You do a show like this, [and] there’s media done on you and it’s like, what does that spawn?” he said. “What does that produce? What is the result of that thing? It’s not always good.“
The original series had the benefit of perfect casting with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and the reboot will have a high bar to overcome in that regard. “No matter what, he’d got a hard job,” Carter said. “Casting is a hard job. Mounting it is a hard job. All the problems that I dealt with are going to be his problems.“
While Carter isn’t involved in the project beyond giving it his blessing, he did have a “really nice conversation” with Coogler when the reboot was first pitched to Fox. When it comes to passing the reins to someone else, Carter is more than happy to do so. “It’s interesting, people say, ‘Aren’t you possessive of it?’ And I say, ‘No, I’m looking forward to seeing what somebody else does with is,” Carter said.