The X-Files alum Gillian Anderson, James Purefoy team up for new series

You may have known already that Gillian Anderson of The X-Files, Hannibal, and so much more was poised to star in a new Netflix series entitled Sex Education alongside Asa Butterfield. Now, we’ve got some other information that could bring a smile to your face.

In a new post on Twitter (see the bottom of this article), Anderson herself first broke the news about James Purefoy’s casting. To go along with that, we’ve also heard (via TVLine) that he will appear as a guest in several episodes as Remi, the ex of therapist Jean (Anderson) and father of her son Otis (Butterfield). What’s fun to us about this role is that it marks an opportunity to really play around with genre — Anderson’s an extremely versatile performer, and we’ve certainly seen with Purefoy over his career that he is the same way. He was super-menacing on The Following, only to then have a heart of gold on Hap and Leonard despite all of the trouble he got himself into. He was also recently a part of Altered Carbon.

Sex Education is currently filming in the United Kingdom — alas, there is no firm news about a premiere date just yet! We’d be surprised if the show comes out before 2018, but never say never. This is the first series-regular role for Anderson since the end of The X-Files, where she came back for another turn as Dana Scully earlier this year. She made it clear throughout that she had no plan of returning in the role again, and with the ratings being what they were for season 11, Fox made it clear that they had no intention of continuing the franchise in the near future. That’s probably the right thing to do, given that without Gillian, they would’ve plummeted further.

What do you think about Anderson getting a new scene partner in Purefoy? Be sure to share right now in the comments!