Ryan Coogler’s X-Files Reboot Officially Greenlit, Danielle Deadwyler Cast as First Lead
The Sinners director’s revival has a pilot order from Hulu
By Alex Kaan 23 February 2026
© 20th Television
Ryan Coogler’s long-anticipated reboot of ‘The X-Files’ is officially making its way to Hulu.
The Sinners director will write and direct the pilot for the new series, with Jennifer Yale (‘The Copenhagen Test’) as showrunner, as confirmed today by Deadline. Danielle Deadwyler (The Woman in the Yard, I Saw the TV Glow) has been cast in one of the two lead roles.
It remains unclear how the reboot will connect to the original series and whether Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will appear in any capacity, although Anderson has expressed interest in working with Coogler on the show. Speaking to CBR during the Tron: Ares press tour last year, the actress said, “There may be a certain point, if Ryan Coogler does get X-Files off the ground, that I would dip into Scully again under his tutelage.”
Danielle Deadwyler will play a co-lead © Dalvin Adams
The series will follow “two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents [who] form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
Yale will be an executive producer alongside Sinners producers Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Zinzi Coogler, as well as The X-Files creator Chris Carter. The series marks another high-profile reboot for Hulu with a pilot directed by a prestige filmmaker. Hamnet director Chloé Zhao is helming the first episode of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival set to premiere later this year.