Perhaps the only thing to stifle anticipation for another X-Files revival was the first X-Files revival, though FOX undoubtedly wants the chance to try again. That may soon become a reality, as network heads claim they hope to announce the next chapter “shortly,” potentially even for the next TV season.

FOX boss David Madden answered the inevitable question from the executive session of his TCA press tour, shortly after the network scheduled its latest revival, Prison Break, for an April premiere. It’s been some months since either stars or cast had anything to say of an eleventh X-Files season, while Madden offered “There are lot of conversations going on. We hope to announce something shortly.”

That “shortly” could even refer to the coming TV season, as Entertainment Weekly notes that FOX had originally hoped to have the “complex” negotiations completed for the panel. Says the report, “Most likely, The X-Files will return in 2018, the executive noted.”.

Back at the August TCA press tour, co-head Dana Walden said that a new season would likely run longer than the six-episodes of early 2016, potentially as high as ten hours:

We would have liked to have done more [episodes] in the first place. It was really the limitations of David and Gillian and Chris’ schedules. Gillian lives in the UK, David lives in New York and California, and we do the show in Vancouver. Chris lives up north. So it was just trying to coordinate a time where they all carve out a period to be in Vancouver … We’re in conversations that intentionally we could do more. I don’t imagine it being a full season of The X-Files, but I would be really happy if we were able to get eight to 10 episodes.

More X-Files would need significantly more planning and care than the six episodes we got, but is it worth backing off of the franchise a few more years? Does that revival cliffhanger demand more immediate answers?

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