Gillian Anderson Is Open to Playing Dana Scully Again in Ryan Coogler's THE X-FILES Reboot

In recent years, The X-Files franchise star Gillian Anderson has seemed pretty dead set against reprising her role as Dana Scully again. But, apparently, when it comes to Ryan Coogler’s upcoming reboot, she is open to the idea.

The actress recently appeared on The Today show, and when asked about the future of The X-Files, she said: "It's so funny because, for most of my life, since I finished The X-Files, every interview I do, people have asked, and the answer has always been, 'Nope. Not gonna happen,."

She then went on to say: "Now, Ryan Coogler, who's the director of Black Panther, a brilliant, brilliant director, has approached Chris Carter to say that he wants to do a take on it. I cannot think of a better way around for a reboot to happen, I think he's a bit of a genius."

When asked if this means she's open to returning, Anderson admitted: "There's a chance it will happen. Whether I am involved in it is a whole other thing, but in his hands ... But I am not saying no, because I think he's really cool, and I think if he did it, it will be done incredibly well, and maybe I'll pop in for a little somethin' somethin'."

When previously talking about the possibility of returning to the franchise, she said: "It just feels like such an old idea. I've done it, I did it for so many years, and it also ended on such an unfortunate note.”

She added: “In order to even begin to have that conversation [about another season] there would need to be a whole new set of writers and the baton would need to be handed on for it to feel like it was new and progressive. So yeah, it's very much in the past."  

That is exactly what is happening with Coogler’s involvement, so it’s pretty awesome that Anderson is open to playing Scully again. Hopefully, Coogler reaches out to her to take advantage of the opportunity!

When talking about her time on the series and coming to terms with not taking her time on The X-Files for granted, she said: "There was a definite period of time where I couldn't even really hear about it. I'd had my fill.”

She continued: “And then -- I don't know how long it was, whether it was a decade or less than a decade -- I was suddenly realizing how unbelievably fortunate I had been, not just with its success, but to get to play a character like Scully, and for such a long time. And not just a true, iconic character, but also the impact that she particularly had on young women -- women of all ages in so many different ways."

Anderson went on to say: "[I was] really coming to terms with not taking it for granted, and how lucky and how rare that is. That all started to hit me at a certain point. And I think for David, too. And certainly at the point that we started to think about, 'Go on, should we just do a couple more seasons just for the fun of it?' -- in celebrating that further, or having the opportunity to celebrate it and the characters further, it was great. You can't ask for more than what those characters gave to us."

There are no details to share on Coogler’s X-Files series, but I’m curious to see what he’s got cooking.