It Can't Be 'The X-Files' Without The Lone Gunmen

The return of The X-Files to FOX on Jan. 24 is bittersweet. On one hand, I'm very excited that we're finally getting more episodes with Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. On the other, I'm sad that there are only going to be six of them. That does not seem like enough time to bring everything I want out of an X-Files return: a mix of conspiracy and standalone episodes, installments from every writer I loved, and big moments for every character I missed. Given that I can't have everyone, I hoping for some of my favorite minor characters to turn up. That's why right now, the biggest question on my mind is if the Lone Gunmen will return in The X-Files' new season.

Granted, I know it's kind of a longshot. When we last saw them, it was in the ninth season of The X-Files, in an episode that wrapped up the events of The Lone Gunmen spinoff series. And they didn't exactly fare too well. Well, I shouldn't say that. They saved the world from a virus! But, in order to do that, they had to seal themselves in a room with it. The last you see of them on TV, they're being mourned at Arlington National Cemetery.

But, this is television, and just as TV shows never really die, characters never do, either. In the ongoing comic series of The X-Files, it's revealed that the deaths of The Lone Gunmen were faked, because of course they were. That leaves the door wide open for them to return in the new season. So, will they?

According to one of the gunmen, actor Dean Haglund, yes, it's happening. Turns out, you can get over a bad case of death, at least in the X-Files universe. You can even catch a glimpse of them in FOX's 20-minute "X-Files: Reopened" video below. But, fair warning, it is full of spoilers about what might be in store for this run of episodes.

It looks like the Lone Gunmen are not only appearing in a flashback, or a video, or some other kind of they're-there-but-not-really-there cheat in the revival. (At least, that's what it seems like from the video, which could be misleading.) But it's not like all of The X-Files secrets are revealed. Other than the fact that they're in new episodes, and not dead, we're not sure what The Lone Gunmen will actually be doing in the series. No actors have spilled the beans about their mission. For that, you'll still have to watch when the revival premieres on Jan. 24.