With Sinners driving a stake through the competition at the box office, the hit vampire movie’s director Ryan Coogler is turning his attention to his The X-Files series reboot. Boosted by glowing critical reviews—including a 98 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes—and star Michael B. Jordan’s popularity, Sinners raked in $45.6 million over its opening weekend. That marks the biggest debut for an original film since Jordan Peele’s Us opened to $71 million in 2019. Coogler previously directed Creed, Black Panther and Wakanda Forever, based on the iconic Rocky and Marvel franchises.
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time and I’m fired up to get back to it,” Coogler said of The X-Files project during a recent interview with Last Podcast on the Left, confirming that the series is “immediately next” on his schedule. “Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really fucking scary.”
Coogler was first reported to be developing an X-Files reboot back in 2023, when series creator Chris Carter confirmed that the two had talked about relaunching the supernatural detective drama, which starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigated reports of paranormal activity.
Coogler also confirmed that he had discussed the project with Anderson. “She’s incredible and fingers crossed there,” he said on the podcast, adding that Anderson was finishing up work on Tron: Ares the last time they talked. “We’re going to try to make something really great, bro, and make something for the real X-Files fans and maybe find some new ones.”
The X-Files, originally produced by 20th Century Fox Television, aired on Fox for nine seasons from 1993 to 2001, before being revived at the network for two more limited series in 2016 and 2018. Coogler is developing the latest revival with Walt Disney Television. The Sinners helmer is considered to be a master of turning established properties into fresh hits. He first rebooted the Rocky franchise with 2015’s Creed. Then he adapted Marvel’s Black Panther comic books into one of the MCU’s most critically-lauded movie franchises, with both the 2018 original and its 2022 sequel, Wakanda Forever, earning multiple Oscar nominations.