There was much celebration in X-Philes quarters when the news became official that Mulder and Scully would be returning to their guns, badges and flashlights for a fresh, if limited, round of confronting monsters and mysteries in The X-Files. Now Mulder himself – AKA David Duchovny – has taken a chat show appearance as a chance to announce that Walter Skinner and the Cigarette-Smoking Man will also be back.
“Mitch Pileggi will come back,” Duchovny said while on Letterman hawking his new album, “and the Cigarette-Smoking Man — if this means anything to anyone — will be coming back." Which means that Pileggi, who grimaced and frowned and was something of a badass through the whole run of the series as Skinner, is now confirmed for the new “event series” version of the show that should be shooting this summer.
William B. Davis, meanwhile, played the enigmatic, dangerous chain-smoking conspiracy guardian who we slowly learned more about over the course of the series, though he’s seemingly killed in the finale, so he may appear in flashbacks or – more likely – faked his death.
Series creator Chris Carter is back in charge of the show, which doesn’t yet have a set airdate. If you love all things filed under X (well, maybe not xylophones. Or x-rays), check out our massive celebration of the show.