Last week at Mipcom, series creator Chris Carter introduced the world premiere of The X-Files revival miniseries. But at New York Comic Con, that honor belonged to Silicon Valley star and avid X-Files fan, Kumail Nanjiani.
Wasting little time, Nanjiani set the stage for the U.S. premiere of the first new X-Files episode in 13 years. The original opening sequence was used with the classic X-Files theme. The only change was that Mitch Pileggi was added to the opening credits with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.
Keeping spoilers to a minimum, the first episode of The X-Files miniseries puts forth an alternate explanation for the events witnessed in the first nine seasons of the series. And perhaps more controversially, Mulder and Scully’s romance is essentially over and they are no longer close when the series resumes.
Former Community star Joel McHale’s character, Tad O’Malley brings Mulder and Scully back together to examine Sveta (Annet Mahendru), a young woman whose multiple abductions completely challenge Mulder’s previously deeply held beliefs. Hilariously, O’Malley is even more paranoid than Mulder, but he also has surprises for both Mulder and Scully.
The closing minutes are particularly intense as events spiral out of control. But by the end of the hour, The X-Files have officially been reopened and an old enemy reappears.
Related: Check Out Our Exclusive Interviews with David Duchovny and Mitch Pileggi
To say that the crowd loved it would be an understatement. Duchovny and Pileggi took the stage with Nanjiani alongside Carter. Anderson sent a video message to the crowd (while speaking in a ridiculous accent) as she explained that she is filming another project.
Carter noted that only the first episode and the sixth episode will deal with the overarching X-Files mythology, while the middle four episodes will be monster-of-the-week standalone episodes.
Duchovny noted that he knew coming back to The X-Files was the right call because Carter and his former co-stars, Anderson and Pileggi were back. Duchovny also spoke about getting his “Mulder flow” back in terms of his line delivery while Pileggi was particularly proud of a line he ad-libbed for the premiere episode during a confrontation between Skinner and Mulder.
Carter described the relationship problems between Mulder and Scully as a natural bump in the road of life, and he seemed visibly annoyed when a fan challenged him with the assertion that Mulder and Scully “were stronger than that.” Carter replied that it sounded “like a network note.”
The X-Files comic book series written by Joe Harris for IDW already had a season 10 storyline that does not line up with Carter’s new TV miniseries. While Carter praised Harris’ work on the comic, he said that they were separate projects.
When a fan asked if there could be additional X-Files seasons beyond the six episode revival, Duchovny put Carter on the spot for the answer and then immediately apologized for it. Duchovny expressed his gratitude for being able to once again revisit these characters. The short version of Duchovny’s answer is that he is up for more, but it’s ultimately up to Carter and Fox.
The official premiere of The X-Files will be on Sunday, January 24 on Fox.
