Pasadena, Calif. • So Gillian Anderson said she absolutely, positively will not return to her role on “The X-Files.” Ever. Cross her heart and hope to die.
And creator/executive producer Chris Carter said he will not make any more “X-Files” without her. So the 10 episodes that are airing on Fox (Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13) will be the last we see of a franchise that debuted almost 25 years ago. Right?
Well, maybe.
Don’t get me wrong. Anderson didn’t leave any wiggle room when she told TV critics she won’t ever return to her role as Dana Scully. She’s ready to go on and do other things.
“It’s time for me to hang up Scully’s hat. It just is,” Anderson said. “There’s lots of different things that I want to do. … And I want to be able to explore them without being tied to a series. It’s really quite simple.”
And when it was suggested that, oh, maybe 10 years from now she might change her mind, Anderson was adamant.
“This is it for me,” she said. “I’m really serious. … I’m finished, and that’s the end of that.”
I totally believe that’s the way she feels. Right now.
Way back in 1999, I believed her co-star, David Duchovny, when he said he was sick of “The X-Files.” Asked about the Mulder-Scully relationship, he replied, “I couldn’t tell you how uninterested in that I am, really. … It’s just not interesting to me in any way, shape or form.”
And the show’s mythology? “I care as little about that as I care about the relationship.” He made it clear that he “always thought” it would be “best if it remains unexplained.”
Nineteen years later, he’s not the one saying he’s done with “The X-Files.” And doing something to wrap up the unanswered mythology questions? “I would like that,” Duchovny said.
Clearly, that’s not going to happen this season. The truth will still be out there, but not all of it will be in the script.
“Some of those questions will be answered,” said executive producer Glen Morgan. Meaning, of course, that some of those questions will not.
I didn’t doubt Duchovny when he quit as a full-time “X-Filer” after Season 7, appearing in only half of Season 8 and only the then-series finale at the end of Season 9. I don’t doubt Anderson or Carter now.
But things change. Feelings change. Lots of things change.
Maybe Anderson will suffer financial reversals and need the money. Maybe Disney, which is buying the Fox TV studio, will back up a dump truck full of money to her house one day and she’ll accept it.
Maybe not. Ratings for the current season of “The X-Files” aren’t great, so paying Anderson big bucks for another season doesn’t seem like something that’s going to happen anytime soon.
But circumstances change. There might be more “X-Files” someday beyond the scheduled March 7 season finale. And Anderson might be back.
Stay tuned.
