Well it’s official, the pilot for Ryan Coogler’s The X-Files is in the can. Actor Himesh Patel (Tenet) confirmed the news whilst promoting his role in Enola Holmes 3 on the Happy. Sad. Confused. podcast with Josh Horowitz.
When asked by Horowitz if the pilot had been shot and whether it felt like a show or a movie Patel was relatively low-key in his response: “It was very special. That’s all I’ll say. It was very, very special and we await a decision. But all I can tell you is that I had an incredible time.” The decision to which Patel is referring is whether Hulu will pick up the pilot to series, something it decided not to do recently with Buffy: New Sunnydale. Patel goes on to explain that whilst he was a little young to watch the show when it first aired he still fully understood the reverence fans have for Chris Carter’s original series.
Watch the full X-Files clip from the interview in the player below:
Patel’s casting in the series was confirmed back in March 2026 and came hot on the heels of the news that Danielle Deadwyler would be taking on the lead female role in the series. The official logline for the show states, “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents (Deadwyler, Patel) form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
The show is confirmed not to reboot the classic characters of Mulder and Scully, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson across multiple seasons and two movies. Patel and Deadwyler will take on new roles allowing for the new series to potentially connect to the original down the line.
Also confirmed for roles in the pilot are Amy Madigan, Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, Devery Jacobs, Lochlyn Munro, Tantoo Cardinal, Joel D. Montgrand, and Sofia Grace Clifton.
The original The X-Files ran for nine seasons between 1993 and 2002, with two additional seasons arriving in 2016 and 2018. 218 episodes were produced in total, along with two feature films: 1998’s The X-Files: Fight the Future and 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
