What strange, but wonderful piece of news! Fresh off the finale of Community's sixth season, Joel McHale is joining the cast of FOX's The X-Files revival series. So far the X-Files casting has focused on the return of actors from the original series, David Duchovny and Queen Gillian Anderson, of course, along with Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner) and William B. Davis (The Smoking Man). Robert Patrick (Agent Doggett) and Annabelle Gish (Reyes) are also rumored to return.
McHale will play a conservative anchor of a popular internet news network who becomes an unlikely ally for Mulder. Right off the bat, I'm thrilled to think how McHale and Duchovny will interact together. They're both fantastic comedic actors with charm to spare, and I could easily see them having killer on-screen chemistry. This is the first new character announced for the limited series, and I would expect much more in the coming weeks as production is slated to begin this month.
Just to make the excellent news even better, McHale made a Galaxy Quest reference when addressing the casting news on twitter.
The X-Files will return in 2016 for a six-episode run. Series creator Chris Carter will executive produce and write the limited series, which is said to combine the show's overarching mythology with the classic "monster-of-the-week" format. The X-Files revival series will premiere on Sunday, January 24th, with the second episode following on Monday the 25th.
