Chris Carter Explains Major Changes for ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ Director’s Cut

Meredith JacobsFri, August 14, 2026 at 7:00 AM UTC

0

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully — 'The X-Files: I Want to Believe' - Diyah Pera

Over 30 years later, we still want to believe. In 1993, The X-Files premiered, with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson playing FBI agents Mulder and Scully, who investigated unexplained phenomena in a division out of the agency’s basement. It ran for 11 seasons, with two movies also released. Now, in 2026, Chris Carter has released a director’s cut of the second film with a new title, The X-Files: IWanttoBelieve – Vrach Frankenshteyn.

This new version is actually shorter than the original, with a few scenes moved around, more time spent on the Frankenstein-like case, Whitney’s (Amanda Peet) death actually shown, and almost everything about Mulder and Scully’s romantic relationship removed. For example: There’s no “scratchy beard” moment in bed anymore — that scene is now strictly about the case — or kiss at the end, nor does Scully talk about them being two people who come home to a home. All mentions of Mulder’s sister and their son William have also been removed.

Below, Chris Carter explains those choices.

Talk about how releasing this cut came about and why now?

Chris Carter: There’s no really, “Why now?” answer other than I was talking to the guy who runs the movie division at 20th Century Fox about something else, and it just came to me. I said, “Would you ever consider doing a director’s cut?” And he said, “Yeah, I would consider it.” It was as simple as that, just completely out of the blue that I would mention that. Now I’m here talking to you. We did the cut, we changed so many things. We got to do something much more like the version that Frank Spotnitz and I originally imagined, and we got to put some emphasis on what was the original inspiration for the show and the movie, the story that we told, and thus the Vrach Frankenshteyn added title.

Diyah Pera

Yeah, I was going to say, the cut is shorter than the original. It feels almost like this could have been taken back to a monster of the week, two-parter episode.

Yes, exactly. And that’s what we originally intended to do, a monster of the week story, a standalone. The budget was a third of the first X-Files movie budget. We had a limited amount of time to make it. We were making it in a place that was so hard to make a movie in, which was cold and snowy and icy and hard. And so yeah, like that.

There’s a few scenes that you put in a different order, but then there’s certain moments that you also took out. You cut most of Mulder and Scully’s relationship moments, like their kisses both in bed and at the end, the beard moment, Scully talking about them being two people who come home to a home. Talk about removing that from the film.

You watch very closely. So, between 2008, when the movie first came out, and now, there have been two X-Files series reboots. And so my feeling was the audience got a whole lot of Mulder and Scully relationship in that time, and we would be going over territory we had already covered with this movie. So I wanted to cut back on that element and focus on the standalone story. That said, the Mulder and Scully relationship with the movie is all-important, but it isn’t — We know they’ve slept together. Scully’s pregnant. We know that they have this heated romance, this wonderful respect for one another, and they agree to disagree. All that is still in the movie.

The movie felt like it had weight on the wrong thing once we had cut it back for the PG-13 rating. It became almost like a Mulder and Scully relationship movie than it was the Frankenstein movie we originally intended.

How this idea came to fruition, the original idea for the movie was I had read about a doctor who had transplanted the head of a monkey onto another monkey’s body. And I thought that’s perfect X-Files territory. And I actually flew to Cleveland, Ohio to meet this doctor. We sat and we talked. He told me how he did it and he did it successfully. The monkey ended up dying. But for me, it’s possibly — Everybody talks about living forever now, and there’s all these lifemaxxers and whatever who are going to eat the right thing, they’re going to do the right thing. But if you think about it, maybe head transplants is the way you can live forever. X-Files works best when it’s on the cusp or the intersection of what’s science and what’s science fiction. And that was the original inspiration for the movie.

You talked about making it more like stand-alone. Is that why you also cut mentions of Mulder’s sister and William?

Yes.

You came back with those additional seasons, like you mentioned. I have to ask, of course, what the chances are of getting more X-Files with you, David and Gillian, and what would you want to explore there if you did?

So, if you watch, and it seems like you did, the last two reboots of The X-Files, you’ll know that there is something that ends the season finale of Season 11. And some people were outraged. Some people were confused. Let me tell you that through those four episodes, “My Struggle” episodes, I was setting up the big story, maybe the biggest X-Files story ever. And I can’t wait to tell that story if and when I get the chance in either a new series or another X-Files movie.

Diyah Pera

In the original cut, we don’t see Whitney’s actual death. We get the gun falling. But then, in this new director’s cut, we actually do see Holland. Was that about leaning into the horror elements and what you were doing with this new cut?

Advertisement

Yeah. I mean, there are these little things that are scary and horrifying, and there’s more in that laboratory where the young woman is trapped into the box. By the way, if you noticed in our In Memoriam, she is actually gone. Nicki Aycox has died since then. A wonderful young actress who was subjected to not only that box, but ice water. And we put her through the mill, and she was a trooper from the get-go.

Yeah, the additional stuff again in the lab, even just dragging out the headless body and seeing those moments… Now that you’ve recut this movie, is there an episode you wish you could recut? Because just like there’s a difference between what you can show with PG-13 and R ratings, there is a difference between broadcast and streaming now, and what you can show.

I think that network programming is much more permissive now. But going back to The X-Files movie, when the MPA made us cut it back to a PG-13 rating, I realized that — this is now in the 1990s — I could have done more in a television episode, network television episode than I was allowed to do for a PG-13 rating. And so that should tell people why I wanted to do this director’s cut. It wasn’t a standalone episode. It was kind of a mildly scary episode that was heavy on Mulder and Scully’s romance.

So, is there an episode that you would want to recut to lean into the horror more?

It’s very hard to say. I’ll tell you a funny story. If you haven’t heard this, I love to tell this story. There was an episode I did called “Irresistible,” and it was about a man that I originally referred to as a necrophiliac. And when I turned that script in to the people at Standards and Practices, the network sensors, they said, “You can’t do a story about a necrophiliac.”

When you’re working in television, the deadlines are fast and furious. And this is the script that I had and it would begin shooting day after tomorrow. And I had nothing to replace it with. And you’re on a conveyor belt, and you’ve got to be feeding the monster, it’s food. And so they basically handed the script back to me and said, “Can’t do this.” So it’s like I had to think about what I was going to do. Do I come up with a new story, try to write a script in two days? Not possible. So, I thought about it, and then I thought, “OK, I think I know what to do.” I referred to the necrophiliac as a death fetishist, and I handed the script back to them. They said, “OK, great. You can do it.” So sometimes, it’s as simple as a tweak, a point of view. Yeah, I love that story.

Have you spoken to David and Gillian about this director’s cut? Have they watched it?

David watched it. Gillian is a very busy actor. She lives across the ocean from us. She was unable to see it. But David saw it, and his high praise was that he wanted me to take — because it’s a new cut, he wanted me to enter it into film festivals right away because he was so happy with the product.

Related

Will 'The X-Files' Return After New Director's Cut? Chris Carter Gives Update (Exclusive)

How does it feel knowing that people are getting more X-Files now and new fans can discover now with streaming after the series premiered over 30 years? With this director’s cut, then there’s also the new series coming from Ryan Coogler. And it’s just like there’s a resurgence of The X-Files now, which I love.

Thank you. It’s mind-blowing. I mean, there’s an X-Files LEGO set now.

It looks so cool.

I was in my mid-30s, sitting by myself on my computer with my trusty dog sitting next to me. And I would get up. There were three keystrokes to get out of the program. The dog knew the keystrokes and would get up with the ball in its mouth like, “Now we get to play.” That was a very personal moment where in your wildest imagination, you can never imagine that the show would have a life like this, that it would have a fandom like this, that it would be a LEGO set.

My wife and I run together, and we were running on the beach, and we were doing a 10-minutes run and then take a minute break. And we stopped and took our minute break. I look over onto the sandbank, and I see something that I immediately recognize. And I start walking toward a young woman who’s in a graduation gown, and she’s holding her cap, her mortarboard. And on the cap is a graphic. And I walk up to her, and I say, “I know that graphic.” And she says, “Oh, yeah, it’s Mulder and Scully from The X-Files.” And next to it, it said, “The future is out there.” And I said, “Yeah, I know that. I did that TV show.” It’s mind-blowing, so random that this college graduate, her mom, and dad probably didn’t even know each other when the show first premiered, that she is moved, inspired by The X-Files enough to actually make it part of her life plans.

… My wife and I, two years ago, we had taken a break from our busy lives and we started watching the show from the beginning, which was also mind-blowing. And she’d turn to me invariably and say, “How did you do that?” And I’d say to her, shaking my head, “I don’t remember.” It was like I was watching the shows for the first time as well, which I think maybe is part of the fun of The X-Files is it feels fresh and relevant, and I’m hoping, knock wood, timeless.

The X-Files: IWanttoBelieve – Vrach Frankenshteyn, Streaming Now, Hulu

The X-Files, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Hulu

Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”