The X-Files season 12: Chris Carter on possible future without Gillian Anderson
Following Wednesday night’s finale, is there still some hope in there being an X-Files season 12 on Fox? If you listen to what show creator Chris Carter has to say on the subject, he certainly still does seem to think that there is a little more story left to tell on the subject — even if Gillian Anderson is not around to take part in them.
Speaking about the upcoming finale in a new interview with Den of Geek, Carter made his (reasonably new) stance clear on whether or not the series will continue:
“I think there will be more X-Files … They haven’t locked up the file cabinet in Mulder’s office. There’s still more stories to be told. It’s not the same X-Files without Mulder and Scully. In the same breath, there is a lot of life left in the show. I think you haven’t seen the end.”
Carter added, however, that he does not have a plan at the moment for moving forward without Anderson, who has not wavered once on whether or not she could return to the series at the end of the season. She’s reiterated that she wants to move forward and you have to respect that.
It feels pretty clear that this is a complicated issue for a number of different reasons, starting with the fact that The X-Files employs a good many people around Vancouver and the series ending manes that the crew has to go and look for work elsewhere. We understand that many of them are super-qualified and should be able to get great jobs elsewhere, why should they have to if they love working here? If this was a different show, this argument would hold more water. Yet, in this case the crew would have to anyway — just remember that The X-Files isn’t a consistent year to year job so it’s not stable for anyone working on it.
The prevailing argument here is this: The show just shouldn’t work without both Anderson and David Duchovny. It wasn’t great when Duchovny left and it would be equally poor now. Also, the ratings are such that there is really not even much of a reason to continue it from a commercial standpoint in the first place.