‘The X-Files’ Season 11 Recruits Three Female Writers

“The X-Files” has hired three female writers for its upcoming Season 11.

Roughly a month after news broke that series creator Chris Carter had only hired male writers for Season 11 of the Fox series, Fox Chairman and CEO Dana Walden revealed to reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Tuesday that there are actually some women who are writing scripts for the next season of the sci-fi drama.

“Chris has assigned two women episodes,” Walden said (via TV Insider). “Two of the 10 episodes will be written by women.”

READ: Does Robert Patrick want to return as John Doggett for “The X-Files” Season 11?

According to the show’s studio, 20th Century Fox Television, Karen Nielson will pen one episode and Kristen Cloke and Shannon Hamblin will be writing another episode based on a story by Glen Morgan. Walden added that as far as she knows, the addition of the women to the show’s writers’ room took place long before Carter was called out by critics for reportedly hiring an all-male writing team for Season 11.

While Walden acknowledged that majority of “The X-Files” creative team is comprised of men, the network boss said that Carter didn’t deliberately exclude women when hiring new staff members. “After 200-plus episodes of a show that has a very specific mythology, where the fan base has a very high expectation that the episodes are going to deliver, that there are going to be Easter eggs … the tendency is to want to rely on the people who helped you make the original when you’re just making 10 episodes. The group that was with Chris for a very long time just happened to be male writers,” Walden explained.

News of Nielson, Cloke and Hamblin’s addition to the show’s writing team comes just a day after it was reported that two episodes of Season 11 will be helmed by female directors. According to TVLine, “The X-Files” tapped Carol Banker and Holly Dale to direct those episodes.

Banker worked as a script supervisor on “The X-Files” from 1998 to 2002. She also directed the series finale of the shortlived “The X-Files” spinoff, “The Lone Gunmen.” Outside of the “X-Files” franchise, Banker also helmed episodes of E!’s “The Arrangement,” Syfy’s “The Magicians” and The CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” among many others.

Dale, meanwhile, has directed episodes of NBC’s “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.” She was also the sole director of the six-episode Season 1 of the Lifetime series, “Mary Kills People.”

“The X-Files” Season 11 will premiere midseason on Fox.