The X-Files image.
FBI agents Fox “Spooky” Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) wielding flashlights is the signature style of the iconic Vancouver-shot sci-fi series. That’s how they entered a darkened Ballroom for the 20th Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic Con two summers ago. Back then a new limited series on FOX didn’t seem likely. But it’s out there now. Six new episodes in the next chapter to start filming in Vancouver this June.
It’s true: #TheXFiles is returning! http://t.co/7Kb4x3HzWj pic.twitter.com/NKRlY2caqU
— FOX (@FOXTV) March 24, 2015
It’s been 13 years, hope my suits still fit. #XFilesReunion http://t.co/T8Yx6J8a5m pic.twitter.com/L1ZM9BzXCr
— David Duchovny (@davidduchovny) March 25, 2015
Mulder, it’s me. Are you ready? MT @MichaelAusiello XF Revival Official @DavidDuchovny & @GillianA Back for 6 New Eps http://t.co/qZi1v8RazZ
— Gillian Anderson (@GillianA) March 24, 2015
The X-Files filmed for five seasons in and around Vancouver (1993 to 1998), helping to build an industry, before production shifted to Los Angeles. Many other spooky series have taken its place — from Supernatural to Fringe to Continuum to Bates Motel. And one of the X-Files writers, Vince Gilligan, went on to create his own brand of sunny creepiness with Emmy-winning Breaking Bad, albeit in the New Mexico desert instead of a British Columbia rain forest.
Vancouver formula for The X-Files from pilot: Mulder & Scully + BC Forest + Flashlights + Rain + Conspiracy Theory.
9 Missing Minutes.
What stories will X-Files redux tell? Conspiracy theories are even more rampant today, believes creator Chris Carter, who was influenced by a report that millions had been abducted by aliens and the Watergate scandal when he developed the X-Files almost twenty-five years ago.
Will The X-Files redux return to any of its best-known locations?
Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam from the pilot.
Grouse Mountain Skyride as Skyland from Duane Barry in season two.
Duane Barry also contained the famous Mulder-in-a-red-speedo scene.
Ovaltine Cafe in Jose Chung’s From Outer Space in season three.
Related: The X-Files 20th Anniversary Panel at San Diego Comic Con 2013.
Consensus at 20th Anniversary panel: Mulder and Scully should have done it sooner.
Mulder loved Scully from the moment she walked into his office in the pilot, says Chris Carter.
Note: A tour of Fox Mulder’s apartment was my favourite perk from writing a profile of Paul Bronfman, then owner of North Shore Studios, in the 1990s. I was an X-Files fan B.N. (Before Netflix).