The X-Files star Gillian Anderson has said that the only way she would consider a return as Dana Scully would be if there was a “whole new set of writers” responsible for the new stories.
Speaking to Variety, Anderson discussed her time as Scully and why a lot would need to change for her to return, especially after Scully’s pregnancy reveal.
“It just feels like such an old idea. I’ve done it, I did it for so many years, and it also ended on such an unfortunate note,” Anderson said. “In order to even begin to have that conversation [about another season] there would need to be a whole new set of writers and the baton would need to be handed on for it to feel like it was new and progressive. So yeah, it’s very much in the past.”
Anderson shared another reason why she is hesitant to play Scully again – the “sexist world she entered at the time — something that caught her off guard.”
“I was expected to walk behind [co-star David Duchovny] when [our characters] walked up to the front doors of the people we were investigating. There were things that I rebelled against,” Anderson said.
Despite that, Anderson loved the idea of Scully and talked about why she was so drawn to the role.
“I don’t think it was as clear-cut in my mind as being, ‘Oh, this is a feminist character,’” Anderson said. “I think that it was more of just, ‘This is a woman that I haven’t seen before on television, and she’s so unique.’”
The X-Files originally aired from 1993 to 2002, and the duo of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny reprised their roles in 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe film, a tenth season in 2016, and an eleventh season in 2018.
For more, check out our list of the top 12 X-Files standalone episodes and eight facts you didn’t know about the show’s best monsters.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.