Unlike “The X-Files” Season 10, which focused on the show’s complicated mythology, the new season will be going in a different direction.
While there will still be some “mythology” episodes in Season 11, eight of the season’s 10 episodes will be standalone, monster-of-the-week stories.
Chairman and CEO of Fox Television Group Dana Walden confirmed to reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that the new season will be bookended by mythology episodes — in the premiere and the finale. She added that the middle eight will “truly be standalone.”
Walden continued to explain a bit about the mythology episodes, saying that unlike the ones last season, they’d be “much simpler.”
This is good news for fans of the show, many of whom were bogged down by Season 10’s heavy mythology, which took up the majority of the six episodes. A standout episode from the rebooted show was “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” which is an example of a “monster-of-the-week” procedural.
Some of the most well-known episodes from “The X-Files” 200+ episode history are standalone episodes. Others include “Home,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” and “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space.’”
The long-running lore of “The X-Files” has become complicated after 10 seasons, so a call to move away from that makes it seem like the show is moving in the right direction.
As for what else we know about the upcoming season, a couple other developments revealed themselves this week. Annabeth Gish, who played agent Monica Reyes in later seasons of “The X-Files,” including Season 10, will be reprising her role. She made the announcement from her Instagram on Sunday.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXdmD0klNnk/?taken-by=annabeth_gish
The show also announced that it has hired two female directors and that two women will be writing episodes this season, following an online backlash about the show’s all-male writers’ room.
Season 11 of “The X-Files” is set to debut midseason in 2018. Stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will be returning, along with creator Chris Carter.