At a time when we’re awaiting the return of “Twin Peaks” on Showtime after a 25 years, here comes news of the return of “The X-Files” to Fox, with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprising their roles as Mulder and Scully.
Shooting begins this summer on what is being called a six-episode “event series,” which is Hollywood’s way of saying “we don’t want to commit too much time and money to this and neither do the stars.” As such, it’s more in the tradition of the British series that run about six episodes and stop (and “X-Files” was also popular over there, too).
“I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” creator Chris Carter said in a statement. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”
He doesn’t mention that the series order for another sci-fi show he was working on, “The After,” was abruptly canceled by Amazon Prime around the first of the year.
In some way, it’s like rock bands, who break up and get back together years later because they realize their solo careers will never add up to the brand recognition of their former aggregation. (Accordingly, word came down Monday as well that Van Halen will perform two nights on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” next week, with David Lee Roth back at the microphone).
“The X-Files” has returned before, of course, after it was canceled in 2002. s and 2008’s “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” opened at movie theaters in 2008. It was the second theatrical release for the series that didn’t do much better at the box office, or to advance the mythology of the series than did 1998’s “The X-Files: Fight the Future.” It sure disappointed me.
Actually, whenever somebody says something beloved is returning after a long absence and there’s a lot of hubbub and excess excitement about it, I think about this old Popeye cartoon from 1940. Take a few minutes and watch it, won’t you?