Danielle Deadwyler, Himesh Patel To Star In Ryan Coogler's 'X-Files'
Danielle Deadwyler, Himesh Patel Will Star In Ryan Coogler’s X Files Reboot
There’s more good news for Ryan Coogler fans. Coming off the four-Oscar win for Sinners, his reboot of the X-Files just received an official greenlight for its pilot at Hulu, and now they’ve found the two actors that will lead the series.
Danielle Deadwyler (The Woman In The Yard) and British actor Himesh Patel (EastEnders) will co-star as FBI colleagues tasked to investigate paranormal cases. But Coogler will not replace the original characters, FBI special agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. Deadwyler and Patel will debut entirely new characters, though they will remain in the FBI.
The X-Files originally ran on Fox from September 1993 to May 2002, starring David Duchovny as Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Scully, who oversaw paranormal investigations for the FBI. With its tagline, ‘The Truth Is Out There,’ it became a cult classic well before conspiracy theorists gained credibility via social media platforms.
The show’s popularity led to two movies, The X-Files (1998) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), and a less well-received reboot in 2016 with Duchovny and Anderson, which only lasted for two seasons.
The original showrunner, Chris Carter, is executive producing along with new showrunner Jennifer Yale (The Copenhagen Test). Coogler says he has checked in with Anderson, though it’s unclear if she or Duchovny will have any involvement in the new series. Coogler will write and direct the pilot.
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it. Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f*cking scary,” Coogler told Last Podcast on the Left in 2025. “We’re gonna try to make something really great and really be something for the real X-Files fans, and maybe find some new ones.”
Coogler’s Sinners creative team is backing him in this project as well, which is being done through Coogler’s Proximity Media and Onyx Collective. Zinzi Coogler is producing along with the couple’s longtime collaborator Zev Ohanian. Francine Maisler, the casting director on Sinners, is also casting The X-Files.
The reboot has been in Coogler’s sights since 2023, but obviously, after the success of Sinners, production ramped up. Coogler is in a five-year exclusive deal with Disney, which includes Ironheart.
Atlanta native Deadwyler, 43, is enjoying her greatest career success since breakout roles in The Harder They Fall and the Netflix series From Scratch opposite Zoe Saldana. She’s in the upcoming comedy Rooster and the new season of Euphoria, both on HBO, and just starred in the horror film, The Woman in The Yard.
Patel is best known for his role as Tamwar Masood on EastEnders, but earned an Emmy nod for his work on Station 11. His breakout role was starring in the movie Yesterday (2019), where he used Beatles music to catapult himself to fame in an alternate universe where no one had heard of them.
Watch Coogler talk about his love for the X-Files and plans for the reboot.
Danielle Deadwyler, Himesh Patel Will Star In Ryan Coogler’s X Files Reboot was originally published on cassiuslife.com
