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Television Sci-Fi

Chris Carter Announces 'Tweaked' X-Files Series - But No Cartoon (www.cbc.ca) 42

Posted by EditorDavid from the truth-is-out-there dept.
It was exactly 30 years ago that The X-Files began filming in Vancouver. Now X-Files creator Chris Carter tells CBC's On the Coast that the groundbreaking TV series is going to be "remounted" by Black Panther director Ryan Coogler: Carter says he thinks the series would need to be significantly tweaked for current audiences. "We're so steeped in conspiracies now," he said. "The X-Files dealt with a central conspiracy, but now the world is so full of conspiracies that I think that it would be a different show."
The original X-Files series is available for streaming on Disney+. (And Wikipedia notes there was also a six-episode 10th season ran in 2016 and a 10-episode 11th in 2018.) There was also a Lone Gunmen spin-off series in 2001 (co-created by Vince Gilligan, who went on to produce and create Breaking Bad).

The CBC also reports that a documentary about the show will be released this fall. "Superfans Lauren Krattiger and Carly Blake have created The X-Files Fan Retrospective, where they conducted more than 90 interviews with crew members, cast and fans to memorialize the show and its impact."

But don't get your hopes up for an X-Files cartoon. "A few years ago it was announced that Chris Carter was developing an X-Files animated series titled The X-Files: Albuquerque..." writes GeekTyrant, "but unfortunately, it's no longer moving forward at Fox." It was going to revolve around an "office full of misfit agents who investigate X-Files cases too wacky, ridiculous or downright dopey for Mulder and Scully to bother with." It's explained that these agents are basically the X-Files' B-team.
Thanks to Slashdot reader GoJays for sharing the news.
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Chris Carter Announces 'Tweaked' X-Files Series - But No Cartoon More

Chris Carter Announces 'Tweaked' X-Files Series - But No Cartoon

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  • Fun fact (Score:5, Interesting)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @12:43PM (#63419554)

    I never got into The Lone Gunmen, but then, I never got into the X-Files either. That said, the first episode [youtube.com] of The Lone Gunmen was about the electronic hijacking of a jetliner to crash it into the World Trade Center tower which aired in March of 2001, six months before the 9/11 attacks.

    • Chris Carter did 9/11!

    • Re:Fun fact (Score:4, Interesting)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:28PM (#63420660) Journal

      I vaguely remember reading an interview with Carter where they asked him how he got so many of his conspiracy type ideas. He claimed there was a guy working for the Federal govt. who would occasionally agree to eat lunch with him. And he'd share some of these ideas with him while insisting it was all "off the record" stuff that he "may or may not have just made up in his head". It really does make you wonder if that's how he got the 9-11 WTC idea for that Lone Gunmen episode.

  • Here's to it not being like the end of the movie.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mikeiver1 ( 1630021 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @12:59PM (#63419618)
    I enjoyed the series, the movie, not so much. Did some work for Chris at his then new home in Malibu over 15 years ago. Met and spent a couple of hours talking with him. Such a nice, down to earth, and approachable person. I even teased him about the week ending of the movie and he took it in stride. I enjoyed Millennium even more though much darker. I hope this goes well for them.

  • There's a better show out there (Score:3)

    by willoughby ( 1367773 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @01:02PM (#63419628)

    If you can find the 1996 series, "Dark Skies", you're in for a treat. It's "The X Files" done right. And you get the added bonus of J.T. Walsh in every episode.

  • X-Files kinda was and now this firmly plants it into that territory of "Star Trek" or "The Twilight Zone" where it's not a show about "Mulder and Scully", it's just a base premise to hang stories off of.

    I do hope they keep the tone similar, I felt the X-Files did a pretty good job of playing things straight but the overall tone was super serious either so things in stories are usually absurd but not goofy, but this was adaptable with the individual story.

    Of course the challenge is finding equally compelling

    • sorry "*not* super serious"

    • X-Files kinda was and now this firmly plants it into that territory of "Star Trek" or "The Twilight Zone" where it's not a show about "Mulder and Scully", it's just a base premise to hang stories off of.

      I do hope they keep the tone similar, I felt the X-Files did a pretty good job of playing things straight but the overall tone was super serious either so things in stories are usually absurd but not goofy, but this was adaptable with the individual story.

      Well they tried Robert Patrick for a while after Duchovney left. But the basic premise isn't that different from Supernatural. Pair of investigators go out investigating things most people don't believe in.

      I think the big trick for X-Files is that even with FBI agents as the main characters there were a lot of conspiracies based around the idea of secret cabals inside the government.

      In the 90's the believers of those conspiracies could be dangerous, but they were pretty fringe. Now, those "government cabal"

      • Nothing against Robert Patrick but his casting was not not tried because he was a better fit but Duchovny suing for residuals.

        I agree about the government conspiracy side, I recently rewatched the series for the first time since it's airing and was veru surprised how kinda relevant the show as in conspiracies, actually got me wondering if the show was responsible for planting the seeds of a lot of these ideas in the viewers at the time. I know these things like grey aliens, illuminati groups and the such we

    • >I do hope they keep the tone similar

      So do I. I greatly enjoyed the original series. Part of it was the tone and seriousness, in the face of what were often incredibly off-the-wall events. The whole yin/yang thing of the two agents also worked well.

      >Just please don't "reboot" it like the previous episodes never happened.

      I wouldn't want them to remake any of the old stories. But I also don't think it would be absolutely necessary to hook into the "lore" of the old series, either. I fear they can't

    • can John Doggett come back?

  • The X files was the first major show to encourage deep scepticism about what THEY are up to. How far has that led to the anti-vaxxers and the Orange one? My memory, as an old git, is that such things just weren't there before the 1990s.

    • That's what they want you to believe!
    • Of course they were. Look up Carroll Quigley's Tragedy and Hope, the John Birch Society, and None Dare Call It Conspiracy. The big difference was the democratization of publishing on the Internet, where anyone with a connection could serve up whatever he wanted.
  • I wonder if a show somewhat like X-Files that parodies conspiracy theories? Some conspiracy theories people actually believe in and some just made up. See if the audience can tell the difference. At least it would be a fresh idea.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rademir ( 168324 )

      Agree, except also some of them *are* real conspiracies - gotta keep the audience guessing. That would be fresh.

      This was just X-Files: Lower Decks - might have been fun to watch but not likely to feel novel.

    • It's a comedy so not in the same tone but "Inside Job" on Netflix was a spoof on conspiracies. Was pretty funny too imo.

  • The corporate whores continue to regurgitate and re-digest the cud from 30 years ago

  • Huge X-Files fan, back in the day.... (Score:3)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:24PM (#63420650) Journal

    IMO, when you go back and re-watch the original TV series today, it still stands up pretty well. I'm not sure the "central conspiracy theory" that runs through the whole series as a story arc is any less interesting today than it was back then? Chris Carter thinks we're too "steeped in conspiracies" now for it to hold people's attention now -- but I'm not so sure.

    Where X-Files episodes felt "weaker" to me were almost always when they felt like they were out of cool, UFO type stories to tell, and reverted to "one offs" about strange monsters or creatures in the woods, a la Bigfoot or Dracula. (Let's face it... Most of us would probably feel like it was a waste of time if we called the FBI about a scary creature we insisted some of us saw in the woods, right?)

    They redeemed themselves when they brought things back to real, scientific explanations for how some of the oddities could be. That's one of the things that made the series good. They didn't just throw random "scary stuff" in that you were supposed to accept just happened because of magic/voodoo/witchcraft. Those might have been reasons some of the show's characters THOUGHT things happened, but Mulder and Scully would usually dig deeper. Unfortunately, they didn't always make this effort and those episodes suffered for it.

    But other than for the humor and some of the nostalgia, I didn't care much for the last attempt to bring X-Files back to TV with that short series of episodes. It was just too hokey and made fun of itself to the point it felt insulting to me. It was like, "Hey, fans! Come watch us bring back the show you loved! We're going to totally ruin it to show all of you that you were taking it way too seriously before."

    If they're going to try to revive the show with not only a whole new cast but a whole different angle to it? I question why they aren't just making a new show? It feels like a cheap attempt to get viewers by re-using the old TV show title.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by BigZee ( 769371 )
      I enjoyed the central conspiracy for the first few years but every time they added to it, I thought it got weaker and weaker. For me the best stories were standalone. My favorite was the one with the vampires.
  • I am growing increasingly weary of reboots. For every series that hit all the right marks - Harley Quinn and Wednesday come to mind. Perry Mason perhaps -. we get a dozen more which are lame and lazy - or exist only to kick the fandom in the teeth. Velma. There is also something to be said as well for having a clear driving narrative that encourages strong and engagaing character develooment. You shouldn't be exposing all the pieces at once, but they should be falling naturally into place. B5 did that k
  • He's not doing anything else, is he?
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  • I'd make the theme about the uber conspiracy. All conspiracies these days are coordinated by a secret organisation that wants to keep the people under control.
    It is my favorite trick to make noisy conspiracy theorists shut up.
    "But the earth, it is flat!" Yeah, you are one of them aren't you? Admit it. How much are they paying you?
  • These days, it doesn't matter if what you make is good, as long as enough people have heard of the name to give it a go on streaming platforms. That's also why we have endless sequels instead of new ideas.

    If subscriptions to streaming platforms were as easy as flipping the channel, then we wouldn't see so much of this. Also, ad-supported streaming might curtain this trend, but right now, your money is already in their bank.

    The fact that this will undoubtedly be used for more woke propaganda isn't ev

  • If the only thing they can tell us is that the cast will be diverse, then they're already focusing on the wrong aspect.

    I mean, the original series had Mulder, Scully and Skinner. How diverse can you make that? And what is a remount?

    The X-Files worked because of great chemistry and good story telling. Focus on that. Let the rest follow. Shows that go into production with a social checklist rarely do well.

    • If Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman was still alive, and able to be on the show, I'd say "get Albert Hosteen on the team as a more regular-appearing character".

  • "...cosmos born of matter and gas..."

    I know they were going for mystical, but that line struck me as just plain stupid. I don't remember much about the X-Files (watched it last when it aired originally) but I remember that plain as day.

  • Unless you're in the US*, in which case it's on Hulu.


    *JuSt UsE a VpN
  • I can't wait to see them investigating the Flat Earth conspiracy.

  • What to do? Well, we can't think of anything new, so let's do something that someone else already did.

  • No more money for Chris Carter until we get Millennium back.

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