Actress Gillian Anderson has revealed that despite the overwhelming negativity surrounding Mulder & Scully’s last adventure (and I use that term lightly), producers are indeed pressing forward with a third X-FILES feature film.

Well, I say revealed, her comments are a little vague in truth – “I hope it will happen, there’s talk of it. I don’t know who’s writing it but I hear there’s something going on.” Disturbingly, her role in the about-to-be-released JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN seems to have sullied her taste somewhat “I’ve always wanted to do a spoof of the X Files as a film,” (oh boy) “We talked about that for a long time but maybe after three features we could get to do a spoof feature.” Not only is this a terrible idea, but somebody should remind Anderson they’ve already done this in a far classier way in the excellent season 7 episode HOLLYWOOD A.D.

Is this franchise resurrection just wishful on Anderson’s part? Time will tell. But she’s not the only one hoping Chris Carter will get back to the keyboard. Lance Henricksen, star of sister show MILLENNIUM, dropped some details on a possible feature. Apparently a fan campaign has helped speed up the development process…

“People are clamoring for this thing. Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz are interested, it’s just a matter of who’s going to step forward first and pull the trigger. It’s ready to be done, and there have been millions of cards and letters going into Fox, to the point where about six months ago they went, ‘Stop.’ And our answer to that was, ‘Double up.’ We’re trying to get them to crack and say, ‘OK, let’s take the meeting.’ Isn’t this a great way to do it? It’s all fan-based. I don’t call them fans, I call them the tribe. Tribe members. And they’ll all be in the front row when it happens. There are finished concepts, which is more important. The script is easy.”

Since that show got cancelled in 1999 it’s hard to believe that there’d be much of a chance at seeing a big-screen MILLENNIUM outing any time soon (sorry Lance), but that shouldn’t deter everyone involved shooting for a TV mini-series or a direct-to-DVD movie.

Would audiences be willing to shell out for another big-screen X-FILES movie though? Let’s be honest, the critical and box office kicking that I WANT TO BELIEVE got was absolutely deserved. It’s staggering that Carter picked such an achingly dull story to relaunch his characters with. Sure, FIGHT THE FUTURE was far too reliant on the mythology of the show to win over the general public, but I WANT TO BELIEVE’s stand alone, down to earth nature was too far in the other direction. Mulder & Scully should be going up against aliens, not Billy bloody Connolly. 

Would you guys be interested in seeing Carter’s creations on screen again? Or are they best left in TV limbo? Let us know in the Comments or on Twitter @Starburst_Mag