If you stuck around for all nine seasons of the original series, then you already experienced The X-Files without Mulder and Scully. Late in the run, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were both off the call-sheet for a time, with Agents Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) becoming the show's prime partner pair. With the introduction of Agents Einstein (Lauren Ambrose) and Miller (Robbie Amell) in The X-Files revival, showrunner Chris Carter seemed to be hinting at a possible passing of the torch. Part of the joke is that Miller and Einstein are a derivative of Mulder and Scully: another tall drink of water who wants to believe and a redheaded skeptic who'd like to see the science, thank you. Even if Duchovny and Anderson continue on with the series (fingers and toes crossed for that renewal), will Einstein and Miller get an X-Files spinoff?
I think that's an unlikely scenario. The characters are so similar that an Einstein/Miller series would be doomed before it even began. Why accept Mulder and Scully 2.0 when the originals are still available? In an interview at New York Comic Con with TVLine, Carter was mum on spinoff rumors saying, “Right now I’m focused on doing the show with David [Duchovny] and Gillian [Anderson].” Besides, if Fox decided to spinoff The X-Files, there are way more interesting directions to take it than towards a partnership with a too similar dynamic. Here are some other ways the series could continue without either detective pairing — hopefully, to help fans pass the time before another season of the revival is finally ordered.
1. The Skin-Man Chronicles
Walter Skinner is the unsung hero of The X-Files. From the early days when his motivations were foggy to the later seasons when he proved to be an invaluable ally to his two most frustrating agents, that "big, bald, beautiful man" (Mulder's words) has been a key figure in the show's history. There have been a few Skinner-focused episodes in the past, but I would be all-in for an entire Skinner-driven series.
2. We're Not Dead: The Lone Gunmen, Take 2
I refuse to accept The Lone Gunmen's cameo appearance in this season's "Babylon" as the last time I'll see those three kooky conspiracy theorists in this world. True, a Lone Gunmen spinoff already crashed and burned on Fox, but with the right writers and the right comic feel, a Frohike/Byers/Langley show could still work.
3. Mulder & Scully: The College Years
Entertainment Weekly reported that a publishing deal had been struck to put out a series of X-Files: Origins prequel novels that would follow the (separate) adventures of a high school aged Mulder and Scully. I'd like to advocate for a college-era spinoff, mostly because it would feature two actors in the style of Duchovny and Anderson arguing with professors and annoying classmates while clothed in a variety of '80s fashions.
4. Inside The Conspiracy
FBI this, Mulder and Scully that. What about the aliens, guys? Don't they deserve a voice in all this? The ultimate X-Files spinoff would take a page from Stephanie Meyer's Twilight retelling Midnight Sun, and change up the POV on the action. Imagine the conferences that went down with those little grey reticulans and the sinister old men of the Syndicate. That's the side of the story I've been dying to see.
Then again, no spinoff, no matter how well thought out, could ever capture fans' hearts and paranoia like the original X-Files.
