Gillian Anderson loved the new X-Files script - but David Duchovny doesn't even know if Mulder exists in Hulu’s reboot
David Duchovny has played FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder for most of his professional life, 11 seasons across two runs of The X-Files, two movies, and countless moments that defined a generation of television. So it might surprise fans to learn that, right now, he genuinely doesn’t know if that character will exist at all in Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Hulu reboot.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Duchovny confirmed he has spoken with Coogler and has a general sense of the project, but hasn’t read the pilot script. More to the point, he doesn’t know whether his character even survives the transition. ‘I don’t know what the world of his show is,’ Duchovny said. ‘I don’t know if my character exists in that show. It’s all hypothetical to me, so I can’t really address it.’
That’s a striking admission. Gillian Anderson, who played Mulder’s partner Dana Scully for those same 11 years, is further along as she’s read the pilot, called it ‘really good,’ and told fans at a recent convention appearance to keep an open mind. Anderson has teased that conversations with Coogler could lead to her returning in some capacity. Duchovny, by contrast, is in a more uncertain position.
‘There have been talks about certain things, but there’s nothing concrete at this point,’ he told the Hollywood Reporter. And while he’s cautiously optimistic about what Coogler is building (‘It’s a great frame that Chris Carter came up with all those years ago,’ he told Gold Derby), his primary concern is the writers’ room. ‘We were blessed to have a writers’ room that could generate 20 to 25 movie ideas,’ he said, citing Vince Gilligan, the Morgan brothers, and Howard Gordon as the creative engine behind the show’s best years. ‘I hope Ryan doesn’t have to do 25 episodes and only has to do 10 or 12. And I hope he’s got great writers because that’s really the key.’
Coogler’s reboot has a pilot order at Hulu and two confirmed leads: Danielle Deadwyler (Till) and Himesh Patel (Yesterday) as brand-new FBI agents assigned to unexplained phenomena cases. Original series creator Chris Carter is involved as an executive producer. Whether the new show exists in the same universe as the original, or starts entirely fresh, hasn’t been confirmed.
The X-Files premiered in 1993 and became one of the defining series of the decade, running for nine seasons on Fox before two revival seasons in 2016 and 2018. For millions of fans, Mulder and Scully were the X-Files. The idea that Mulder might simply not exist in what comes next is, as Duchovny himself might put it, a lot to process.
This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 7:10 AM.