What happens at the end of The X-Files? The finale was never written to be one
The X-Files has finished twice. The first time was 19 May 2002, with a two-part episode called "The Truth". The second was 21 March 2018, with "My Struggle IV" on Fox. Only one of those was written as a full stop, and it wasn't the later one.
"My Struggle IV" ends with Mulder learning that William was never his son — a Cigarette Smoking Man experiment implanted in Scully. CSM is shot and his car goes into the water. Skinner is hit by an SUV. Scully tells Mulder she's pregnant. William then surfaces from the river, conscious.
Chris Carter wrote it as a cliffhanger
Carter wrote and directed the episode, as he had the three "My Struggle" instalments before it — two season premieres and two season finales, spread across the 2016 and 2018 revivals, built as one arc. He was explicit about what he'd made, telling E! News in 2018:
"I don't see it as an ending, I see it as a new beginning."
He was still saying it in 2026, telling IGN he has "a big reveal for everyone" waiting if the show ever comes back. Gillian Anderson, meanwhile, had already confirmed this was her last appearance as Scully.
Who is actually dead
Deliberately, almost nobody is confirmed either way:
- The Cigarette Smoking Man — shot by William, car into the river. Carter has pointed out the death isn't verified on screen.
- Walter Skinner — run down by CSM's SUV, last seen motionless between two cars.
- Monica Reyes — shot by Skinner shortly beforehand.
- William / Jackson Van De Kamp — resurfaces alive in the final shot, after Scully has accepted she was never his mother.
What about the 2002 finale?
"The Truth" was the one designed to close the series. Mulder is tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to death, and broken out by Skinner, Doggett, and Reyes. He and Scully end up in a New Mexico motel room having been given the alien colonisation date: 22 December 2012. Two films and two revival seasons followed it anyway.
Is there more coming?
Hulu ordered a pilot in February 2026 for Ryan Coogler's reboot — Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel as two FBI agents assigned to a long-shuttered division, with Jennifer Yale as showrunner and Carter credited as an executive producer. It filmed in Vancouver from May 2026. Hulu has not ordered a series. In July 2026, World of Reel reported the finished pilot was shot on 65mm, runs about two hours, and that Coogler has asked Disney to consider putting it in cinemas as a film instead.