Don't call 'The X-Files' return a reboot, says show creator - here's why
"There's this trend to reboot shows now," Carter told Business Insider. "And that word 'reboot' doesn't sit well with me. It suggests that you have an old computer in the closet and you want to fire it up again. That's not what I think 'The X-Files' is."
The Oxford Dictionary defines a reboot as a show that is restarted or revived, given new impetus. Among television fans, 'reboot' typically refers to a show that is brought back with a similar story, but new cast members, such as The CW's "90210" and BBC's "Doctor Who."
For Carter, calling "The X-Files" a reboot implies that it had lost its vibrancy - an idea he completely doesn't buy.
"I think 'The X-Files' is a show that took a big 13-year commercial break," he said. "I think that's what I want people to come away thinking - 'Wow, this is still a great show. The actors look great, and there's still lots of stories to tell.'"
"It takes a big right turn for the mythology of the show and it puts it into a contemporary context that you couldn't have gotten to without the 12 to 13 years in between the time we went off the air and now," Carter told BI. "It's of its time and obviously you couldn't have done this in 2003."
Carter laid out the upcoming episodes for us. It will start with the game-changing first episode; the second will be a standalone that relates to Mulder and Scully's son, William; the third and fourth episodes will be "monster-of-the-week" episodes; the fifth will be "poignant" and touch back on William; and the sixth episode is back into mythology.
"Somehow, ['The X-Files'] is elastic and it stretches and comes back to shape," Carter said of the series' ability to manage different genres in one show. "It's a show that does a lot of things well and it can do them in some kind of cohesive way."
"The X-Files" returns Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Fox.