Here are my notes on some new interviews on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Millennium (see our coverage here!). They talk about Millennium but Carter in particular also discusses The X-Files and even gives hints as to the franchise(s)’s future.

Chris Carter

Interview by The Time Is Now podcast.

On Millennium:

• The show’s legacy is the hard core fandom
• Influence of David Fincher. For the pilot, he got the production designer from “Seven“, Gary Wissner. The scene from “Seven” where they are exiting a parking garage, they hosed the floor so that it shines, it was a work of art.
• Frank and Catherine was an idealized relationship. Contrast that to Frank and Lucy Butler, the other side of the coin.
• “The Well-worn Lock“: Meghan’s character was in the shadow of Frank, this was her real debut.
• Inspiration: a trip down to Seattle, a strip club. He was “asked to create a show”, he took all the things he couldn’t put into TXF, the darkness.
• David Nutter helped shape the show, he honed the scripts of the first two episodes, he said “simplify, simplify”.
• Women working on the show: Diane Widas (wardrobe), Jennifer Metcalf (production coordinator). In the 90s there were not many women TV directors. He wanted Lesli Glatter [did Twin Peaks, later did Mad Men and Homeland] but she was doing long form stuff. If they had more women directors, Catherine might have become a more substantial character. [Odd that he would rather talk about how a director would impact the character instead of a writer.]
• On producing his shows: The Powers That Be are the people with the purse strings, they always expect you to fail, they pressure you to do more with less. With success like with TXF they loosen the purse, in MM it was like “a police state”.
• He liked Fincher’s “The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo“. If he had seen it back when making MM it would have had an effect on casting, character, the show would have benefitted by someone with the attitude of [Lisbeth Salander].
• “Seven and One“: he always worked shoulder to shoulder with Frank Spotnitz.
• Glen Morgan and Carter discussed a reboot of the show to some length, before other things took over. He has ideas about a reboot, he has a really good idea about how to reboot the show, involving Jordan. [Incredible that this was actually considered, but never came to fruition. As with Virtual Seasons, fan films and the IDW comics continuation, the obvious idea for a soft reboot is to center the story around Jordan’s powers.]
• When asked about MM today he replies he just saw “Naza“. The excitement of killing: that darkness is part of human nature, there is nihilism in all of us.
• In the Calgary premiere of his “Queens for a Day“, he ran into Peter Wunstorf [director of photography of the MM pilot]. He and David Nutter always talk about how the MM pilot is the best pilot ever made!

On The X-Files:

• Story arcs of characters. In TXF, William started out pure, but his life was “hijacked by one of his fathers, his putative father”.
• AI threat: when Carter asked Coogler if he has something akin to a mythology, he replied AI, in some fashion. [I like that this project would take a different direction than the alien conspiracy, and this is in keeping with the times. It would even confirm something that Dean “Langly” Haglund said two and a half years ago, incredibly! Are we going to see Langly’s simulation again?]
• The inspiration for Doggett came from “Fire in the Sky”, it had a MM feel to it. [I’d say it had more of a TXF feel than MM.] Doggett, or Robert Patrick, would fit perfectly in a reboot of MM.

Frank Spotnitz

Interview by the Millennium Group Sessions podcast, recorded in 2025.

• When he and Carter talked about TXF and MM, they had a desire to do shows that were “not disposable”, for them to mean something. [And they achieved that!]
• MM is about “the real fears”, not the metaphors like the aliens and monsters of TXF. TXF is “more mythic and romantic and heightened”.
• He struggled with “Weeds”. He was really happy with “Sacrament”. He had fun going back to MM in s3.
• He was definitely not ready to be a show runner for MM s2. Also, he was not aware of how to deal with all the politics of the network, satisfying the executives. He remembers that as early as season 1 episode 3 they had meeting, they were asked to make the show lighter.
• TXF: “Irresistible”: how that episode served as the basis for MM and had no supernatural in it. “We were all sceptics, but we did believe there is evil in the world, people who do evil things.”
• “The single best thing Chris ever did was that Pilot of MM.”
• He remembers stories from early in his life being a reporter, facing the reality of evil and pain in the world.
• Many interesting thoughts about how TV has changed since. Right now the business model is struggling. Executives are more conservative, less risk-taking, there is an emphasis on pre-existing IPs.
• He is really proud of his contribution to MM. Chris set the bar very high, he had ambition.
• Show running s1 while doing TXF and the movie at the same time was brutal, but he got to strengthen that muscle of how to write, the craft.

Sara-Jane Redmond

Interview by the Millennium Group Sessions podcast, recorded in 2025.

• She fondly remembers working with Lance, whom he respects a lot.

Klea Scott

Interview by the Millennium Group Sessions podcast, recorded in 2025.

• She was a fan of TXF, she was thrilled to work with Carter.
• She was a young actress, just married, had just become a mother (?), and was just sent up to rainy Vancouver opposite Lance, what an experience.
• She and Lance had talked about s4, how Emma would be undercover in the Millennium Group and they would meet in secret under a tree.