X-Files reboot will be 'like six hour film', says David Duchovny

The actor said he was surprised Fox chose to do a TV series instead of a film, but says the reboot will be the best of both worlds

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny may reunite for another series of The X Files (Getty Images)

X-Files fans may not be getting 25 new episodes of the TV reboot, but they will be treated to something along the lines of a six-hour film, according to David Duchovny.

The actor, who plays FBI agent Fox Mulder, said he was surprised when he first heard about plans to revive the TV show, assuming the cast would get together to do another film instead.

The X-Files has been made into two movies, The X Files in 1998 and The X Files: I Want to Believe in 2008, which earned over $260 million in combined box office sales.

Duchovny, co-star Gillian Anderson and series creator Chris Cartner have been vocal about wanting to do a third film, but the actor says he did not expect the studio to greenlight a TV series instead.

Due to other filming and stage commitments, the cast couldn’t do another 25 episode series, but Duchovny said a shortened series appealed to them.

“We all started to think, ‘I don’t mind doing it on TV if we don’t have to do a full season. We just could make it like a six-hour movie’,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

He added that Fox didn’t want to do another film after “hurting the franchise” with the second movie, which was released fifteen years after the The X-Files began on TV.

A case for Mulder and Scully? David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’

But the actor doesn’t have the same concerns about the upcoming TV reboot.

“It’s going to be the same show. It’s obviously going to be different times and the characters are going to be older and all of the things that are going to be changing naturally will change.”

The X-Files is due to begin filming this summer, and is expected to debut next year although a premiere date has not yet been announced.