In less than four short weeks, Mulder and Scully will be back on the case when Fox's reboot of The X-Files premieres. In anticipation of that fateful moment, the network put together a 21-minute behind-the-scenes featurette all about the making of the latest, six-episode installment of their story. You can watch the delightful sneak peek above, and below, seven important bits of info we gleaned from the special.
Beware: There are spoilers ahead. Mild ones, since they're coming directly from creator Chris Carter and stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny themselves and you know they wouldn't spill too much, but still—there are definitely spoilers. So if you want to go in blind, bookmark this and come back after the series premieres on Sunday, Jan. 24. Ready? Okay.
1. Mulder and Scully are NOT together. Sorry. It's kind of a bummer, but Carter says you'll learn what has happened in their relationship. "Mulder and Scully for nine years had a platonic relationship. Even though we suggested they have a child together, we never saw them as a couple until the second movie where we saw them definitely together. When we come back to them in the new series, we will have been honest to their new relationship previously but we now find them in another state," he says. Now, seven or eight years later, "time has been difficult for their relationship. We will investigate what's happened in that time."
Adds Anderson, "I think that where we find Mulder and Scully perfectly delivers us into a similar dynamic that we've had before—which is huge intimacy and appreciation, and yet frustration—but still love and care, and potential."
2. The first and last episodes will be told from the point of view of one half of the duo. While the premiere, "My Struggle," will focus on Mulder, the sixth, also called "My Struggle," will follow Scully.
3. There's a good mix of standalone and mythology-heavy episodes. Says executive producers Glen Morgan, "We always tried to have kind of a human element. It was always tied to how it affected Mulder and Scully as human beings, and it's the same here. They're going through all these weird stories but the throughline is them confronting their age and confronting their life choices."
4. Anderson and Duchovny are still old friends. They totally love each other—just watch the special for adorable shots of them giggling together like no time has passed.
5. Meet the new characters! Joel McHale's Tad O'Malley, a conservative radio host, is the person who sets the new story in motion. "He is very conservative but his ideas about conspiracy theories match up exactly with Mulder's. My character wants to get a hold of Mulder and that's how it starts," he explains." I start a ball rolling that turns into a boulder." Annet Mahendru stars as Sveta, a woman who has been abducted by aliens multiple times.
6. Skinner's back! And he will really be helping Mulder and Scully with their investigation. "After a certain point, he realized that what these two agents were trying to do was to bring the truth out, so Skinner eventually became their champion. He still is a company man, but perhaps not looked on with favor," says Mitch Pileggi, who plays the FBI assistant director.
7. The Cigarette Smoking Man is also back. Yes, Carter is aware that this does not make sense, considering he died in the series finale. But Carter says that his return will be explained. "We are playing with this mythology in a whole new way," he teases.
The X-Files premieres Sunday, Jan. 24 at 10 p.m. on Fox, and moves the following day to its regular Mondays at 8 p.m. time slot.