The X-Files and Endings: Is This the Last Season for Mulder & Scully? Will Skinner Die?

Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny and series creator Chris Carter on the future of the Fox series

By Chris Harnick Jan 10, 2018 4:00 PMTags
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If this is the end of The X-Files, Mulder and Scully are fine with it. Well, the people who bring Mulder and Scully to life on The X-Files, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are fine with it.

"We've been asked that every year for the past 20 years as well," Duchovny cracked to E! News during a visit to the Fox show's set in Vancouver.

Anderson has been public about her desire to leave Special Agent Dana Scully behind, but as Duchovny pointed out, they've said all this before. Yet it's looking like these 10 episodes will be the last. For now.

"I haven't read No. 10, but I'm going to say yes," Anderson said when asked if she'd be satisfied with this being the end.

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As for an ideal ending for Mulder and Scully, well, it may involve more than Mulder and Scully. More on that later this season. As for Mitch Pileggi's Skinner, the character's backstory will be explored this season and Pileggi did make a request to series creator Chris Carter regarding his FBI honcho character.

"I said to Chris, ‘Why don't we kill Skinner in the last episode? If this is going to be the last episode, let's kill him and make him go out as a hero." And he was like, "Ehhh, I don't know if I want to do that." But then I started thinking about it and I sent him a text and said, "Chris, never mind. Never mind what I said'…It's been a treat. And playing this guy has been awesome."

Preparing for the end has been something Carter has done for years on The X-Files.

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"I always try and play as if this is the end and so even if it isn't the end I try to take the characters and the show to a dramatic climax so you could either fall off that cliff or climb back up," Carter told us. "I've never imagined The X-Files without Mulder and Scully, without David and Gillian, and I don't want to have to imagine that. So really, as long as they want to do it, I would want to do it. But beyond that it's really a big question mark."

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The X-Files' Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny on 25 Years of Mulder & Scully—And a Satisfying Ending?

Maybe it's time to fall off that cliff—either for good, or for a while. You want the actors engaged with the material and characters. It's been 25 years since The X-Files premiered, there's been two movies and more than 200 episodes. This has been more than a respectable run. And it's looking like the 2018 batch of episodes shook off the cobwebs and are getting back to what made The X-Files a hit in the first place. Anderson and Duchovny said that's why they came back.

"Resolution is good," Anderson said.

"Yeah. We didn't know what was going to happen after the last 6, obviously we didn't know if it was going to be successful or work at all," Duchovny said. " So once we saw that it did, we thought we could come back, and as you said, resolve it or figure out a way to end."

At the 2018 TCA winter press tour, Fox bosses Gary Newman and Dana Walden addressed the recent comments and chatter of this being the last iteration of The X-Files.

"It seems like if those are the circumstances, there won't be any more X-Files," Walden told press.

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Newman elaborated in a smaller group of reporters. "Gillian has said she doesn't want to do the series anymore, and Chris has said I wouldn't do the series without Gillian, well if you believe both things, then there'd be no more X-Files. But I think you could have asked David or Gillian at various times since the show originally went off the air, would you do the X-Files, some days you'd get a yes, some days you'd get a no, and they've done two additional seasons. I would not foreclose the possibility that in the future, there would be more. But not only are there no plans, there hasn't been a single conversation about it," he said.

"It would be foolish for me to even speculate on it. Obviously we love the show and love the people involved, and excited to have it back on the air," Newman concluded.

Would you be fine with this being the last season of The X-Files?

The X-Files airs Wednesdays, 8 p.m. on Fox.