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It's official: 'The X-Files' is back with Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny and Chris Carter

Six episodes of the conspiracy-busting classic will go into production this summer.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Gillian Anderson will once again don the sensible pantsuits of Dana Scully while David Duchovny polishes his best smirk as alien-hunting Fox Mulder. Fox

The truth is out there once more -- "The X-Files" is coming back to television. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will clip on their FBI name badges again as supernatural investigators Mulder and Scully in six new episodes of the cult show.

The show's creator Chris Carter is onboard for the new episodes. "I think of it as a 13-year commercial break," Carter said in the official announcement. "The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, [making this] a perfect time to tell these six stories."

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The world has indeed moved on: what will conspiracy-theorist Mulder make of a post-Snowden world where a cover-up of alien activity seems like one of the more benign things a government agency can do? Now that everyone has a smartphone and Instagram, will each episode only be five minutes long? And will Mulder and Scully end up together?

The new series is produced by Fox and will go into production this summer. It's yet to be confirmed when it will be broadcast.

"The X-Files" first hit TV screens in September 1993, telling the story of supernatural-obsessed FBI agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder and his skeptical partner Dana Scully. A huge global hit, the show ran for nine seasons and won 16 Emmy Awards and 5 Golden Globes. The series ended in 2002, and Mulder and Scully were last seen in the movie "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" in 2008.

The return of the "X-Files" will be more welcome news for fans of FBI agents entangled in '90s weirdness: "Twin Peaks" is slated to return for a new series, although creator David Lynch has said that's not as certain as we may have hoped.