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With Ryan Coogler directing a fresh X-Files reboot, several lingering mysteries from the original series and its revivals remain unexplored. The reboot, focusing on new FBI agents, has the opportunity to address unresolved arcs such as the fate of The Lone Gunmen, the enigmatic Cigarette Smoking Man, the whereabouts of John Doggett, and the ever-present alien colonization mytharc. These threads, if handled with care and inspiration from shows like Twin Peaks, could provide both nostalgic payoff and new narrative depth, bridging the gap between the show's legacy and its future.
The upcoming X-Files reboot, directed by Ryan Coogler, is being positioned as a fresh start rather than a legacy revival of the original series. There's currently no Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) or Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) set for a return, with the director instead opting to bring in some much-needed new blood to the franchise.
All fans know so far is that the series will see two FBI agents sent to resurrect the shutdown X-Files department. Whether or not the show will pull a Doctor Who 2005 style of reboot, which still harkens back to the original adventures but acts as a clean break for a new audience, is yet to be seen.
However, there are still some elements of the original show that could do with another pair of eyes to take a look at. Since Chris Carter's revival of the show ended in 2018, there are some lingering mysteries that the X-Files set up, even as the show ended for a second time, that Coogler could tackle.
These mysteries relate to overarching plots, rather than personal mysteries like Scully's immortality or what happened to Mulder's sister, that these new FBI agents could be slotted into. One such unresolved thread involves The Lone Gunmen, a trio of nerds who quickly became fan favorites. Alive and well in the alternate comic book Season 10, The Lone Gunmen actually died in the Season 9 episode "Jump the Shark.
" After the spinoff series was canceled, Fox insisted that the trio not be brought back in a feature role in the main X-Files show, leading to their eventual demise. However, with nostalgia a major factor in the two revival seasons, 10 and 11, it only made sense to bring them back. Not all three returned; instead, only Langley (Dean Haglund) was brought back, trapped in a "virtual heaven" after his consciousness was uploaded.
Over the course of the episode, Langley insists that Mulder destroy the system, for the audience to discover that there's a backup, and Langley is cut off before he can inform the heroes. That's where everything to do with the fan favorites was left. With Season 11 seemingly being the end of the original crew, Gunmen included, it'd be a ripe story for Coogler's X-Files to pick up on, especially with the technological advances we've had in reality.
Imagine a story where the new FBI agents need to solve a mystery surrounding a data center that Langley has wound up in. It'd be cheap nostalgia bait, but maybe The Lone Gunmen shouldn't have been killed off to begin with. Another major lingering mystery centers on the Cigarette Smoking Man, a mysterious, seemingly impossible to kill member of the FBI.
Season 11 did what all media shouldn't do and revealed too much about a character as enigmatic as the Cigarette Smoking Man. Supposedly killed in the final episode of the revival series after surviving a missile strike previously, questions remain about what's happened to the man in the shadows. As the show laid just about everything out, it was revealed that the Smoking Man had impregnated Scully with alien technology.
He also seems to know exactly when the alien colonization of Earth will take place (it was supposed to be December 22, 2012). So what other humdingers does the Smoking Man know? Coogler has everything from the JFK assassination to alien pregnancies to swing between. It's obvious that if he can survive a missile strike, being severely burnt, and then hiding until 2016 at his advanced age, that something is clearly not right.
There are more layers to the character that could be written, as long as they avoid the possible father of Mulder plot thread. With a modern X-Files, the biggest question is whether the Cigarette Smoking Man has moved to cannabis or vapes. A further unresolved thread involves Robert Patrick's character John Doggett, who stepped into the role after Duchovny's departure for Season 8.
Not especially well-received by fans at the time, Doggett was quickly shoved under the rug for the 2008 movie and both seasons of the revival show. So what happened to him? It would be neat if Coogler took a look at the other weird FBI department show, Twin Peaks, for inspiration. In The Return, or Season 3, Twin Peaks delves into the eventual fate of Agent Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie), who appeared in the prequel movie Fire Walk With Me.
Except, it'd be questionable if Doggett wound up inside a giant tea kettle. The neat thing The Return does is it doesn't linger on explaining everything, something Coogler should definitely take as inspiration. Doggett wasn't a major figure in the overall show's legacy but still played a main role in Season 8. If Coogler's X-Files does go back to the past for plotlines, it'd be great to either catch up or see what happened to this character.
Maybe, as Duchovny did in The Return, Patrick will now be the head of the FBI. Finally, one of the show's leading plots was the alien colonization of Earth. While the gang of characters all tried to get on the aliens' side, fight against it, or just try to figure out if it was even real, it just kind of never truly went anywhere.
This overarching mytharc could be revisited in a new era, perhaps with a more definitive resolution or a new twist that fits a modern sensibility. The new FBI agents could uncover fresh evidence about the colonization timeline or confront the lingering threat of alien hybrid experiments. Without Mulder and Scully's specific history, the reboot could explore the mytharc from a broader institutional perspective, showing how the X-Files division's work has evolved in the face of such an existential threat.
This plotline remains the cornerstone of the original series and offers rich ground for new stories that both honor and transcend what came before
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X-Files Reboot Ryan Coogler Lone Gunmen Cigarette Smoking Man John Doggett Alien Colonization Unresolved Mysteries Twin Peaks Inspiration
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