Ryan Coogler's X-Files Reboot Is Still Waiting on a Hulu Series Order

Ryan Coogler’s new take on The X-Files has finished shooting its pilot, but the project is still waiting on the decision that matters most: whether Hulu wants a full series.

Himesh Patel gave the clearest recent update in a Vanity Fair interview published August 17. Asked about the reboot, Patel said he is still “waiting by the phone” to find out if the pilot will move forward. He also praised the work he saw on the project, saying simply: “It looks stunning.”

That is a more current status update than the original wrap reports, which date back to late June and early July. Patel first confirmed the pilot had finished filming in an interview with The Direct, where he also made clear that he and Danielle Deadwyler are playing entirely new characters rather than new versions of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

Hulu ordered the pilot in February, with Deadwyler attached as one of the two leads. Patel joined the project in March. The official setup follows two highly decorated but very different FBI agents who form an unlikely partnership after being assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to unexplained cases.

Ryan Coogler wrote and directed the pilot and executive produces through Proximity Media. Jennifer Yale serves as showrunner and executive producer, while original X-Files creator Chris Carter is also attached as an executive producer. TheWrap’s casting report confirms 20th Television is producing for Hulu’s Onyx Collective.

The pilot was filmed in Vancouver, bringing the franchise back to the city where much of the original series was made. Patel told Vanity Fair that cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw shot the new pilot and said the experience working with Coogler and Deadwyler left him hoping the collaboration can continue.

Patel also said he deliberately avoided building his character around Mulder or anyone else from the original show. Instead, he went back to the beginning of The X-Files to understand the world while treating the new role as its own character.

For now, that is where things stand. The pilot exists, filming is finished and the people involved clearly want to continue — but Hulu has not announced a series order, episode count or premiere date.

Until that changes, Coogler’s X-Files remains a promising pilot rather than a confirmed new series.