The long-awaited X-Files revival trailer reminds us the truth is still out there

Joel McHale provides the voiceover, as an internet conspiracist laying out the pieces to a multinational conspiracy involving aliens, and then greeting David Duchovny’s retired FBI agent with a helicopter. Mitch Pileggi’s Assistant Director Skinner shows up to help Mulder into his old office, which has been conveniently gutted (but, to be fair, Mulder did leave it vacant for over a decade).

Of course, Mulder can’t go very far into any investigation without the help of skeptic and general worrier, Scully (Gillian Anderson). Although it’s nice that she kept his old number in her contacts list, she doesn’t wait long to inform Mulder that he’s getting a little too crazy, or to bust out her sidearm when the situation calls for it.

There’s all of the explosions, drones, documents being passed, and (former) FBI agents exploring darkened labs with guns drawn that you might expect from The X-Files, as well as a long-simmering conspiracy stretching back decades. Towards the end of the trailer, footage suggests mid-20th-century-looking army uniforms, and some fedora-clad men in black. The truth, it seems, has been out there a really, really long time.

The action and music builds, only to suddenly be cut short by the unmistakable, gravelly voice of the show’s primary antagonist. Given the flashbacks, and the youthful hand holding the cigarette in the close-up, it’s not clear if the Cigarette Smoking Man survived his assumed demise, or we’re seeing just how far back his involvement goes.

The X-Files returns in limited-run-series form, on January 24.