'X-Files' creator admits second movie was a mistake

The creator of The X-Files is proud of his new six-episode limited series reviving the show for Fox, but admits the franchise’s second feature film probably wasn’t the best concept or timing.

Chris Carter first told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Pasadena on Friday that he had secretly written a third X-Files movie, but also he felt that if that ever gets greenlit, the new movie would have to be very different than the second film in the franchise, 2008’s oft-maligned The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

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“If there is a third movie it’s got to be a gigantic movie,” Carter said. “It would have to be a big-budget movie; that’s what X-Files fans want. We tried to do a very small movie about faith the second time out. And it was released in the middle of summer tentpole movies. It was a misstep in that way. I think [a third movie] has to be more like the first movie.”

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Carter also revealed Fox’s new limited series is by no means the end of the X-Files story, as far as he’s concerned. The sixth episode ends on a big cliff-hanger — so there’s no closure, but he sounds fairly confident there could be more episodes.

“If we do well in the ratings, I can’t imagine we wouldn’t be asked to do more,” Carter says.