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Gillian Anderson Says She’s Really Done With ‘The X-Files’ Forever, For Real: ‘I Don’t Want To Be Tied Down’

TCA: Anderson also confirmed she won't be back on 'American Gods.'
Gillian Anderson in "The X-Files."
Gillian Anderson in "The X-Files."
Ed Araquel/FOX

The truth is out there, but Gillian Anderson won’t be. The actress told reporters on Wednesday that this was it for her and “The X-Files,” and to believe it. Anderson was adamant about saying goodbye to the show and Dana Scully after this current string of ten episodes.

“This is it for me, I’m really serious,” Anderson said during a Television Critics Association panel for “The X-Files,” which is now in its second round of reunion episodes on Fox. “I have so much respect for these guys,” she said of her colleagues, “but I’m finished and thats the end of that… I like to be challenged as an actor and I like to do many many characters. Its time for me to hang up Scully’s hat, it just is. The next couple of years are quite full.

“There’s lots of things I want to do in my life and my career,” she said. “I don’t want to be tied down to months and months of any particular one thing.”

Anderson also confirmed that she won’t return to “American Gods,” just as executive producers Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are no longer involved.

Anderson said she originally thought she would call it quits on Scully after the original reunion of six new “X-Files” episodes in 2016 — but ultimately the finale of that episodic batch “didn’t feel like the right way to end it. I wouldn’t have been happy if those six were the way to say goodbye… As [creator] Chris [Carter] has said himself, that short stack of episodes felt like we were learning how to walk again, and that this season of ten episodes feels like the pace is up and we’re running.”

At the same time, when she agreed to return to “The X-Files,” Anderson said “it never occurred to me that it was now a new series. This is the season I agreed to do.”

Carter wasn’t able to attend the panel due to the mudslides in Montecito, where he lives. But he has said that “the show has always been Mulder and Scully, so the idea of doing the show without her isn’t something I’ve ever had to consider,” although he has also said he believed there are more stories to tell.

In addition, Fox TV Group chairman Dana Walden told reporters last week that without Carter or Anderson, “it seems like if those are the circumstances, there won’t be any more ‘X-Files.'”

Duchovny already left “The X-Files” late in its original run, but now appears ready to go along with whatever ultimately happens to the show, whether it be more episodes or completely done. “I’m good with it being the end, I’m good with it not being the end… I’ve tried to say goodbye to Fox Mulder many times and I failed. They went and did the show without me, how do you like that? I’m feeling pretty pissed off now that I remember!”

The ending of this season has already been filmed, but Anderson said she wasn’t ready to comment on whether she’s satisfied with how it ends. But she has become more reflective of Scully, and what the show has meant to her.

“My relationship to Scully and them has changed so much,” she said. “At the beginning, I was really naive. It was all such a whirlwind. I feel like every time I’m asked to reflect I have a completely new and different perspective. This year in doing that for the first time I truly understand how special and unique the dynamic was between Mulder and Scully. Just this year I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for the uniqueness… Some actors get stuck with characters they can take or leave. To have the opportunity to play somebody as iconic a character as Scully and a part of this duo is very special indeed.”

Duchovny, on the other hand, said he doesn’t like to dwell on those kind of thoughts. “I don’t want to think about what the show means or the history or the legacy,” he admitted. “It’s infectious to my process.”

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