X-Files Animated Spinoff Must Be Funny, Says Chris Carter

The X-Files as we once knew it appears to be all but over after 11 seasons spanning the course of 25 years, two feature films, and numerous comics, books, and video game tie-ins. On a show where famously no one ever really dies, the prospect of another run with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson is all but dead. That’s thoroughly disappointing for fans who were (to put it nicely) unsatisfied with the season 11 finale and series creator Chris Carter himself recently said he was “sorry” for how the series ended with a string of cliffhangers that may never get resolved. 

The good news for X-Files diehards is that any franchise worth, well, anything in Hollywood these days never dies. Carter embodies this wholeheartedly and has been quietly working on the next iteration of The X-Files, which is an animated spinoff series script recently ordered by Fox. The series, titled The X-Files: Albuquerque, centers on “an office of misfit agents who investigate cases too wacky, ridiculous or dopey for Scully and Mulder,” according to THR.

Given the success of a similar project in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Fox’s animated history, and the X-Files’ popular monster-of-the-week format, Albuquerque is a logical next step for the franchise. In a recent interview with a Danish X-Files podcast called Sammensværgelsen (which translates in English to “The Conspiracy Podcast”), Carter gave his first comments on the X-Files animated series since the project was announced. 

“Right now, it’s still in the development stage,” Carter said. “I haven’t read a script. And so it’s really hard for me to say what my involvement will be, but I know this, it needs to be funny.”

The project is Carter’s first crack at an animated series, although Mulder and Scully did make an appearance in The Simpsons. For the project, The X-Files creator is teaming up with animated comedy veterans Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko, the creatives behind Comedy Central’s Brickleberry and Netflix’s Paradise PD. Carter and X-Files alum Gabe Rotter are executive producing the series under Carter’s Ten Thirteen Productions banner. 

“[The] animated approach to the X-Files really came as a result of COVID 19, and a way of putting some people to work,” Carter told host Daniel Hartvig Nielsen. “I’ve always wanted to do an animated project and this seemed like an interesting opportunity.” 

The X-Files debuted in 1993 and ended its original run in 2002. It returned in 2016 for season 10 and 2018 for season 11, and ran for a total of 218 episodes. The X-Files one-off comedic episodes, including a handful written by Darin Morgan, are fan favorites and amongst the series’ most critically acclaimed installments. 

We’ll have more on The X-Files: Albuquerque as the project develops. In the meantime, we wrote a guide on how to keep your X-Files fandom alive. You can listen to Carter’s full podcast interview below.