Gillian Anderson Has Something to Say About The X-Files' Lack of Women Writers

Anderson tweeted about the news, saying "#TheFutureisFemale"

By Chris Harnick Jun 29, 2017 5:10 PMTags
Watch: David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson on "X-Files" Revival

It seems like Gillian Anderson wants to believe…The X-Files would do better.

According to TVLine, The X-Files writers room for the next batch of 10 episodes (season 11?), will consist of veterans of the series, some newcomers, but all of them men. No women will be in The X-Files writers room. Men only wrote the first season of the revival as well. Anderson took to Twitter after the news swept the social media landscape.

"And 2 out of 207 eps directed by women. I too look forward to the day when the numbers are different. #TheFutureisFemale," she said in a retweet of The Washington Post's coverage of the news. See that below.

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Fox did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The writers room for the latest batch of episodes, which will star Anderson and David Duchovny, includes series creator Chris Carter, Glen Morgan, Darin Morgan, James Wong, all of whom wrote episodes last year, and newcomers Gabe Rotter, Benjamin Van Allen and Brad Follmer.

Anderson is one of the two female directors during the series' original nine season run. Michelle MacLaren is the other. Anderson, who won an Emmy for her work on the supernatural Fox series, also wrote "all things," the episode she directed.

Disparity in gender and race behind the camera is something Hollywood has been dealing with for some time.

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Fox

Fox's sister network FX made strides with a new initiative to change its roster of directors. During the 2014-2015 season only 12 percent of FX's directors were women of people or color. In the summer of 2016, 51 percent of directors helming shows at FX and FXX were men and women of color or white women, according to Variety.

The 10-episode new season of The X-Files will go into production summer 2017 and air this winter on Fox. When the renewal of the revival was officially announced, Fox's David Madden praised Carter.

"Chris' creativity, along with the brilliant work of David and Gillian, continue to propel this pop culture phenomenon, and we can't wait to see what fresh mysteries Mulder and Scully uncover in this next chapter of The X-Files," Madden said in a statement.

The roster of directors for The X-Files season 11 was not announced, but last season Carter helmed three episodes with Morgan, Morgan and Wong directing the other three.