Ryan Coogler's X-Files got a series order, and fans are thrilled its creator isn't running it
No Mulder, no Scully, and the last revival is still a sore spot. Fans have gone through the new show's credits and like what they don't see.
Hulu has ordered Ryan Coogler's The X-Files to series. The pickup was announced on 13 October 2026, eight months after the streamer greenlit a pilot that Coogler wrote and directed himself, and three and a half years after Chris Carter first let slip that the Black Panther and Sinners director wanted to remount his show.
The new version has no Mulder and no Scully. Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel play two "highly decorated but vastly different" FBI agents sent to a long-shuttered division for unexplained cases. Jennifer Yale (See, Underground) is showrunner, Coogler's regular composer Ludwig Göransson scored the pilot, and Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi and Ben Foster turn up as guest stars.
Fans, though, went straight for the credits. In the r/television thread on the order, one reply summed up the mood: "I see X-Files sans Chris Carter I'm in." The answer underneath: "Right thank Christ he's only an EP."
That is accurate, as far as it goes. Carter is credited as an executive producer, in what reports describe as a non-writing role, and he has said he would be involved only "as a cheerleader". Disney owns the show, and he made it clear he knows it.
"I'm honored that they came to me and asked me, not for my permission, but my blessing."
— Chris Carter, to TheWrap
How the last revival ended
To be fair to Carter, he made one of the best TV series of the 1990s. The trouble is what happened when he brought it back himself:
- January 2016: Fox revives Mulder and Scully for a six-episode tenth series, run by Carter.
- June 2017: The writing staff for series 11 turns out to be all men. Gillian Anderson notes publicly that only 2 of 207 episodes had been directed by women.
- January 2018: Before series 11 has finished airing, Anderson confirms it will be her last as Scully.
- March 2018: Carter's mythology finale leaves the story in pieces, and Fox lets the show go quiet.
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Eight years later, Disney has decided the way forward is a new pair of agents and a new boss.
The most popular person on the new X-Files is the creator who isn't running it.
What fans want from the reboot
The other demand in the thread is about format, not personnel. Several fans asked for the old monster-of-the-week structure rather than another season-long conspiracy, the mythology that tied the later series in knots. One pointed out that the original's 20-plus episode seasons let it make "a new mini movie each week", which a modern streaming order is unlikely to allow.
The casting has gone down well too. Deadwyler and Patel both starred in Station Eleven, and the thread treats the pairing as a bit of a coup.
What nobody has announced is an episode count or a premiere date. Hulu hasn't said when the series launches, and Disney hasn't confirmed where it will stream outside the US. Hulu originals usually land on Disney+ in the UK, so that is the likely home, but for now it is an expectation, not a fact.
Coogler spent three years getting The X-Files off the ground. Carter got his blessing in. The fans got the thing they actually asked for: a show about the truth that doesn't need its creator to tell it.
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