‘The X-Files’ Creator Chris Carter Reflects On Season 10, Teases Season 11

“The X-Files” creator Chris Carter admitted that reviving the Fox series more than a decade after its original nine-season run was a challenge because the show had to reconnect with its old fans.

“We [relaunched] from a standing start after not having been on the air for 12 years — there was some reacquainting that had to be achieved,” Carter told TVLine of bringing the beloved sci-fi series back for a six-episode Season 10 last year. “It was like old friends getting back together. We had to shake some of the stiffness out.”

But now that all the groundwork is laid, Carter is confident that the upcoming Season 11 will run more smoothly than the previous season. “I think that we’re all in fighting shape now,” Carter said, before teasing a particular episode written and directed by Darin Morgan. “[The episode] is “original, smart, funny … everything you expect. It has a big link to previous X-Files episodes.”

David Duchovny, who plays Fox Mulder on the series, shares Carter’s sentiments about Season 10. At the New York Comic-Con last October, Duchovny said (via TV Insider) that Season 10 was too “exposition heavy” about how to get viewers up to speed. But with the upcoming Season 11, the actor said that fans can expect “actual” stories.

“That’s exciting to me, to actually start telling stories [in Season 11],” Duchovny said. “Unfortunately, we kind of got trapped into telling the story of the show [in Season 10.] To me, that’s not so interesting. It might be interesting to fans. I don’t know. I can’t look at it that way … To me, the show was about the case and how that affects the characters. Unfortunately, after a certain point [last season], it becomes about the characters, not about the case and, to me, that is less interesting.”

During a roundtable interview at New York Comic Con, Duchovny’s co-star Gillian Anderson also revealed that she only decided to reprise her role as Dana Scully for Season 11 because she felt that Season 10 didn’t live up to the expectation of the fans. “It felt like it wasn’t over. It didn’t feel like we necessarily deliver everything the fans were expecting of us last time,” the actress said (via Screen Rant) of why she returned for another season after last year’s revival.

“The X-Files” Season 11 premieres on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.