The world of science fiction and alien abduction may have left Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully behind, but it sounds like X-Files 3 hasn't been relegated to a clandestine filing cabinet just yet - despite the lukewarm reception to the last film.

According to series' producer Frank Spotnitz, a third film may not be the only project fans have to look forward to - whether David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are involved or not.

The fate of the X-Files film series has been up in the air for some time now; the first movie, Fight the Future, was a commercial success that was ultimately soured by the lackluster follow-up, I Want To Believe. Since then, Fox has stated that if the cast and crew were still interested in completing the trilogy, they'd make it happen, despite reservations.

We know David Duchovny is ready to get back into Fox Mulder's suit, and Gillian Anderson alongside him. The expectation had been that filming would be underway come 2012, meaning that deadline has passed. Not exactly encouraging. But in an interview with DenofGeekX-Files series (and movies) producer Frank Spotnitz cleared the air on whether he had a script already in place:

"No. No I don’t. I mean I’ve known for many years what I would like the movie to be and I’ve been talking to Chris Carter about it for many years, but there is no script...it’s the climax of the alien colonisation story that began the series."

X-Files 3 Update Mulder Scully

From that description, it seems that the third film (if it ever gets made) would be closer to an alien invasion movie than the regular mystery format. But as Spotnitz notes, fans of the property might get more X-Files beyond an end to Mulder and Scully's opus. Especially in this age of reboots and prequels:

"I wouldn’t be surprised at all. I mean, I don’t think I would have anything to do with it but you know, for better or for worse, these things are titles of big corporations, like Star Trek belongs to Paramount and The X-Files belongs to Twentieth Century Fox and it’s a huge asset in their libraries so I can’t imagine they would let it sit languishing forever...Anything could happen. I just hope that if they do it, they do it well, that’s my only request."

We still have our concerns about any potential sequel to I Want To Believe, and considering Duchovny credited much of that film's shortcomings to the fact that it "strayed too far from the roots of the series," a shift to a full-blown invasion may not be a recipe for greater success.

That being said, a reboot may not be an idea worth shooting down right off the bat. As it stands, there aren't many sci-fi TV shows exploring the same type of supernatural and horror content that X-Files made downright mainstream. Sure, there's Fringe, but we know that show is coming to an end.

Would a new take on the original  X-Files TV show be such a bad idea?

We'll keep you up to date on any and all news regarding X-Files 3 - or a reboot - as it happens.

-

Follow me on Twitter @andrew_dyce.

Source: DenofGeek (via CBM)