Megacon (Orlando, 20 March 2026): The X-Files cast reunion with Nick Lea, Robert Patrick, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Annabeth Gish.
See and hear actors struggle to remember anything from a 30+ years old show!
- Robert wishes he could still play Doggett, if they paid him for it. Best role of his career. His first scene with Gillian was perfect, with the water on his face, it reflected a lot of the fan reception he sadly felt.
- Gillian avoided TXF questions and conventions until about 5 years ago when she understood the Scully effect was still a thing today, and reconciled with it. [She mentions the Gina Davis documentary, sorry Gillian but that was… 10 years ago!]
- Mitch singles out the moment when Skinner told the CSM “get out” of his office (that’s early, 2X01: Little Green Men), that’s when he knew Skinner would come to be an ally of Mulder and Scully.
- Annabeth wishes they had had more time to develop the Doggett Reyes (or Scully Reyes) romance.
- Annabeth’s husband-to-be was Robert’s and Chris Carter’s krav maga instructor. Robert remembers introducing them, Annabeth remembers differently.
- Props they have kept: Nick: prosthetic arm prop (from Requiem); Mitch: brass bulldog from Skinner’s desk; Gillian: Scully’s grave stone (from One Breath); Robert: all the scripts he was in; Annabeth: bell rings from Reyes’s apartment; all of them have wardrobe.
- Early on, Gillian was keen to show her range as a young actor, Chris was training her to show the kind of emotions that Scully would have, faith, science, cool.
- Nick singles out Kim Manners, Rob Bowman, and especially Bob Goodwin for the success of the show. He said yes to anything, they just went out and did it, “like in the old days”. He remembers shooting the car explosion (Paper Clip), surrounded by explosives inside the car, it only worked on second take. He insisted doing the stunt hanging out over Skinner’s balcony instead of shooting around him standing on a platform (Tunguska). For Genderbender, he had just met Bowman, and he kept suggesting things for the shots, ” wouldn’t it be cool if”, “yeah!”.
- Mitch and Steven Williams choreographed their elevator fight scene themselves (End Game). First take, Bowman wanted more, second take they damaged the elevator set!
- Robert remembers learning to scuba dive to shoot in a water tank at Universal (Nothing Important Happened Today).
- Nick explains the Black Oil perfectly! Nobody remembers anything!
Awesomecon (Washington DC, 15 March 2026): Gillian Anderson
- Reboot: “We [GA and Ryan Coogler] we’ve had a few conversations. He’s such a cool guy and so talented. The pilot script is really good. I would say, have an open mind and give it a chance because it’s going to be fucking cool. It really is. It’s something different. It’s different and it’s special. So, give it a break.”
- Where would you like to see Agent Scully go? “That’s got nothing to do with me. Who says that Agent Scully is even in the reboot?”
- Influence of Jodie Foster in the Silence of the Lambs on Scully? “Chris had said to me that he had Clarice in mind when he was writing Scully.” “Even though I had seen it however many years before, I had decidedly not watched it because I didn’t want to be Jodie Foster being Scully. But I definitely feel like the grit and determination and single-minded seriousness of Scully and the nature of her intelligence too probably, was very much in line with how Jodie played Clarice, or how Clarice might have been written.”
Gillian having read Coogler’s pilot script is telling: the script would not have circulated to an actor unless Disney/Coogler want to convince her to participate. It looks like the new series would start without Scully (or Mulder), build up its own identity, then leave the door open for an appearance by Scully a few episodes in. But nothing is decided. “Give it a break” definitely sounds like she’s trying to anticipate a negative reaction (that inevitably comes with anything in fandom these days) and pre-empt it.
Megacon (Orlando, 21 March 2026): Gillian Anderson
- Casting for Scully: knew it was special just by reading the script for the pilot. Other candidates included Jill Hennessy, Cynthia Nixon. 10 Mulders, 5 Scullys, casting over two days. She was cast at the end of the second day, a Thursday. The next day, Friday, she left for Vancouver to shoot the pilot! Cast just as she got her last unemployment cheque.
- About the reboot: more or less repeats the above. “I read the script. It was really good. [I told fans] to not think disparagingly about it. It’s very different and very similar, all at the same time, and it’s very special. I think he’s [Coogler] incredibly talented and I think he’s one of the only people who’d really be able to do something unique and do it justice. He’s completely obsessed with the series. I think he’s one of the most talented filmmakers who’s out there, so the fact that Chris has him as the person who’s going to be involved in the franchise is awesome and a huge gift. I think that you guys will see what he has in mind and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
- Question about the upclong LEGO set: it will include several of the iconic imagery of the series. [Presumably it will be Brent Waller’s original design?]
“Very different and very similar” is exactly what I would want from a new X-Files project.
