The man who taught America to "trust no one" is learning the lesson the hard way. Chris Carter, creator of "The X-Files," is being sidelined from his own franchise while Hulu — owned by Disney — hands the property to Ryan Coogler for a reboot with two new leads, and Carter can't even get a distribution deal for a film he paid for himself.
Carter confirmed to Page Six Hollywood that he "would love the opportunity" to bring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson back for a Mulder and Scully continuation, but told Screen Rant the Coogler project is now the gating factor: "I think we have to wait until the Coogler show finds its audience and then figure out how we might do it with those variables or unknowns in front of us."
Translation: the corporation decides, the creator waits.
Coogler's series, greenlit by Hulu in October 2026, stars Himesh Patel and Danielle Deadwyler as a new pair of FBI agents. Screen Rant reports the show is described as the "long-shuttered" X-Files division being reopened, making it more of a sequel spinoff than a clean reboot — meaning the original mythology Carter built could be remixed by someone who has never shown him the script. Carter told Page Six he deliberately hasn't read it. "I have faith in Ryan Coogler," he said. "I think he's a brilliant filmmaker, and I'm excited that he wants to take a different approach to it."
Meanwhile, Carter is going it alone. His new film "Queens for a Day" — a dark satire about a Fox News-style talk show host who gets trapped in her own mother's body in 1950s Queens — was self-financed. No sales agent. No distribution deal. "The truth may still be out there," Page Six noted, "but this time, so is a distribution deal." Carter's wife Dori Carter wrote the script over 30 years ago; the protagonist was inspired by Judge Jeanine Pirro.
The political irony cuts both ways. Carter called Trump 2.0 "catastrophic" and said Hollywood moguls are cozying up out of "fear of reprisal, fear of speaking up, fear of being embroiled in the justice system." He added: "I think there was money to be made in fealty. It's disgraceful." Fair enough — but the same corporate machine that squeezes out independent filmmakers is the one now controlling his own creation. Disney owns Hulu. Disney decides what gets made, who makes it, and whose story continues. Carter built a show about rogue agents fighting a shadow government; now he's the one being told to stand down.
Screen Rant noted Carter "seemingly let it slip" in August that Anderson might appear in Coogler's version, and assumed Duchovny would too — but with no script access and no creative control, Carter is in the dark about the future of his own characters. He spent four episodes across the last two revivals setting up a continuation. Whether that story ever gets told now depends on how a Disney subsidiary's reboot performs.
"Trust no one" was the warning. The question is whether anyone who builds something worth keeping in this industry can afford to trust the corporations that own it.
