The first minute of the X-Files revival series is out there—along with the truth, of course—and the premiere of the new limited series is less than two weeks away. But Chris Carter just can’t help himself when it comes to new X-Files teasers, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Carter revealed on Friday morning at the Television Critics Association press tour that there’s also a third X-Files movie out there. As Gillian Anderson put it, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder have been failing to solve cases together for 23 years, and Carter has plenty more ideas for adventures between the medical doctor and the believer—enough for another movie, even.
“I actually wrote a third movie, just because I was interested in the idea of where that might go,” Carter said. He added that he thought about repurposing the script for the television revival, but his wife shot him down: “I let my wife read the third movie, and she said ‘I think not for television,’” Carter said. Instead of using material from the screenplay he wrote, Carter used other X-Files material he had previously written to put together the television revival. And even though he has that third movie stashed away somewhere, his comments at the press tour made it clear that he’s more interested in focusing on television for the moment. “I’m waiting for Fox to come back and ask for more,” said Carter. “Then we’ll talk about it.”
That same day, Fox bosses Gary Newman and Dana Walden commented on the future of the series, saying that the biggest obstacle to doing more episodes is wrangling Anderson and David Duchovny when they’re so busy filming other things, writing books, making music, and ruining lives. But the network doesn’t seem to be ruling it out. “Even the other night at the premiere, we were all laughing and joking about doing this again,” Newman said.
The X-Files premieres on Fox January 24. For now, the third movie remains locked away with all those unsolved cases.