All the recent casting news surrounding the X-Files reboot, re-teaming David Duchovny's Agent Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson's Agent Dana Scully, has seemingly been leading up to this moment. Speaking to a crowd in Sydney, Australia, Dean Haglund, who played the long-haired Langly, confirmed that his character will be returning for the new mini-series, alongside Frohike (Tom Braidwood) and Byers (Bruce Harwood). This may come as a surprise to hardcore fans of the original run of The X-Files, as the three characters seemingly met a quite-final end toward the end of the final season of the supernatural-thriller series. It's not like this is a show that hinged too heavily on rationality and the bounds of logic, however, and finding a satisfactory alien-related out for their return will likely come easy.
Here's Haglund's tweet confirming the news out of Australia:
Braidwood, Harwood and Haglund are only the latest three entries in what has been a long line of casting in The X-Files reboot, beginning with the great Mitch Pileggi's return as FBI Director Skinner and William B. Davis coming back to portray the Cigarette-Smoking Man. On top of that, Joel McHale has a mysterious role in the series, and Lauren Ambrose, of Six Feet Under and, more recently, Dig, and The Flash's Robbie Amell as new agents that are helping out Mulder and Scully. Lastly, there's Annet Mahendru, who is a force of nature as Nina Krilova in The Americans, and Silicon Valley fixture Kumail Nanjiani, both of which are welcome and promising additions to the new cast. Still, it's the inclusion of the Lone Gunmen that will most likely stir up veteran fans of the series, who can still remember all the times Frohike tried a line on Scully or every sarcastic, cynical comment Haglund's Langly tossed out when the agents questioned his governmental paranoia.
There is no set release date for the return of The X-Files but FOX will debut footage from the reboot tomorrow night, July 23rd, during the season finale of M. Night Shymalan's nonsensical and gloomy Wayward Pines. There you go, a good reason to watch something Shymalan made over the last decade. You're welcome.
