The truth may be out there, but is a third X-Files movie? Gillian Anderson seems to think so.
This past weekend at the Toronto Fan Expo Canada the star of the cult classic television series was asked about the possibility of a third film spinoff and appeared for the most part positive in her answer. According to a tweet from X-Files News (and pointed out to us by The Huffington Post), the actress stated “I met with [series creator Chris Carter] before coming here and it’s looking pretty good,” though she did add that they still “have to convince Fox.”
@GillianA Philes asking about XF3. "I met with Chris before coming here and it's looking pretty good."
— X-Files News (@XFilesNews) August 26, 2012
I think that the convincing studio Twentieth Fox part might be the big roadblock to a third X-Files film from happening. The first X-Files film, subtitled Fight The Future, was a big hit for studio Fox bringing in $189.1 million at the box office. Unfortunately, the 2008 follow up, X-Files: I Want To Believe, did less than half that with only $68.3 in ticket sales.
Why the big drop off? Well, the first film had several things in its favor. Released in the summer of 1998, the film served to bridge two seasons of the popular, still-in-production series. The follow up film came six years after the final new episode of the series had aired. But the big difference between the two films is their subject matter. The first film was strongly tied into the show’s popular ongoing “mythology” story arc concerning government conspiracies and an upcoming alien invasion. The second film was more in line with the shows “monster of the week”-style episode. While it was nice to see what Scully and Mulder were up to in the years since the end of the series, fans were disappointed that the film’s story did not connect to many of the show’s still-dangling alien-invasion storylines.
If Carter is interested in going forward with a third film, it seems to me that he would be better served by returning to the show’s mythology. As things were left hanging, there was still an alien invasion scheduled for December 22, 2012. I’m hoping that they are able to stop that from happening as that date is getting kind of close.
