Is Scully Immortal? 'X-Files' Creator Chris Carter Answers the Internet’s 5 Biggest Questions

“For me, it’s not over.”

That was the key point that The X-Files creator Chris Carter communicated to me in a recent interview. I was talking to him about the new director’s cut of the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which debuted on Hulu and Disney Plus last week and, inevitably, the subject of the new Ryan Coogler reboot of The X-Files came up. He mentioned that he suspects both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson may return as Agents Mulder and Scully in that series, but regardless of what Coogler does, Carter still has “big plans” for the alien-hunting duo.

This might explain why he was a little bit coy with me when I asked him a few of the internet's biggest lingering questions about the series. Still, he was happy to address them, if not exactly answer them.

5 What happened to John Doggett?

The original run of The X-Files ended after season 9 in 2002. Then it returned in 2016 for season 10 and in 2018 for season 11. Throughout those two revival seasons, we never see or find out the whereabouts of FBI Agent John Doggett, Robert Patrick’s no-nonsense skeptic who replaced Mulder in season 7 of The X-Files. In contrast, Doggett’s true-believer partner Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) did return, making Doggett’s absence all the more conspicuous.

“I was looking for a way to bring him back in for the reboots, but it just never worked out,” explains Carter. “We did get Monica Reyes in there and she got more than she bargained for. If we come back, I think you may see John Doggett after all.”

4 Is the Cigarette Smoking Man still alive?

The mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, who has been an antagonist in The X-Files since the very first season, has seemingly met death many times in the series. Most recently, in the final episode of season 11, he was shot by Mulder multiple times before Mulder pushed him into the water in Norfolk, Virginia. He definitely seemed dead after that, but fans think he may have cheated death again.

When I ask Carter if the Smoking Man is still alive, he replies: “Good question. Yeah, he seems immortal, doesn't he? He survives everything and anything.”

3 Is Assistant Director Skinner still alive?

Similarly, Mulder and Scully’s biggest ally, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) was last seen getting run over by a car in the season 11 finale. He’s another character who has cheated death more than once on The X-Files, so fans still wonder if he recovered after that episode.

“You wonder,” teases Carter. “We left that inconclusive, but there were so many things we left inconclusive in that final episode. You know, someone said to me, ‘You know, you really didn't give the audience what they wanted.’ And I thought, ‘Do we ever give the audience what they want?’ We always give them something of what they want, but then we pull the rug out from under them. It's what makes the series and storytelling exciting. You never know what to expect. If you play it straight down the middle, it's going to be ultimately unsatisfying."

2 Is Scully Immortal?

A popular fan theory says that Agent Dana Scully is immortal thanks mostly to two different episodes of the original series. In the season 3 episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” Scully and Mulder encounter a man who can see how people will die. When Scully asks him how she will die, he mysteriously replies, “You don’t.”

Then in season 6, Mulder and Scully encounter a photographer who has been alive for 149 years because, according to him, when death came for him during a 19th-century yellow fever epidemic, he refused to look Death in the face so Death took his nurse instead. Later in the episode, Scully has been shot and is about to die. The photographer tells her to look away from Death and he takes her place and finally dies. This would render her with the same immortality that plagued the photographer.

There was even a joke about this theory when The X-Files returned for one of its revival seasons. In the season 10 episode “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” Mulder cautions Scully after she takes down a dangerous suspect on her own. In reply she tells Mulder “You forget, I’m immortal.”

When I ask Carter if Scully is immortal, he replies: “It's a good question. If Mulder and Scully ever reunite for season 12, I have something to say about that.”

Referring to the season 10 and season 11 mythology episodes entitled “My Struggle” parts 1 through 4, Carter adds, “‘My Struggle’ 1, 2, 3, and 4 had a design about where I wanted to take the series and I'm hoping we can see that.”

1 Would season 12 have been his final season?

Given the fact that Carter had a plan for what would have been season 12 — which would have been the third revival season — it makes me wonder if he had planned for that to be the end of The X-Files for good. So, I pose the question “Would season 12 have been the final season?”

“I don't know,” he says. “It's funny, I always likened us to Lewis and Clark. We knew where we were going, we just didn't know how we're going to get there.”

He also adds that he has more stories to tell with Mulder and Scully and he hopes he gets the chance to tell them.

“I hope so,” says Carter. “For me, it’s not over.”

The X-Files: I Want to Believe - Vrach Frankenshteyn is now available on Hulu and Disney Plus.