The new X-Files has found its leading man.
According to Deadline, the series has cast Yesterday star Himesh Patel as the male half of the new FBI pair who will investigate the unexplained and spooky in Ryan Coogler’s new iteration of the series, which originally starred Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Till star Danielle Deadwyler’s casting as the Scully to Patel’s Mulder was announced in February.
Anderson has been a cheerleader for the new series since it was announced, and implored X-Files fans to keep an “open mind” about Coogler’s version.
The Sinners director will write and direct the pilot, which will stream on Hulu, fresh off his Oscar win for Best Screenplay. “Give it a chance because it is gonna be f---ing cool. It really is,” Anderson said during an interview at Awesome Con this week. “It’s something different. It’s not… It’s different, and it’s special, so—give it a break.”
She’s even floated the idea that she could make an appearance in the new show. “I spoke to him, and what I said was, ‘If anyone were to do it, I think you are the perfect person, and best of luck,’” she said last year. “At some point, if the phone rings and it’s good and it feels like the right time, then perhaps.”
Like the characters in the original series, Deadwyler and Patel will play two highly decorated FBI agents who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena, according to Deadline. The original X-Files series ran for nine seasons from 1993 before Anderson and Duchovny reunited for a brief two-season revival in 2016.
Patel, who previously appeared with Deadwyler on the HBO series Station Eleven, will appear in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey later this year. He can currently be seen vying for the role of James Bond in Riz Ahmed’s Bait on Prime Video.
