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A new version of The X-Files’ second movie is coming to Hulu next month, and with it comes a new title.
Gizmodo reports that the R-Rated Director’s Cut of 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe hits Hulu on August 14, titled The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a standalone, character-driven thriller set six years after the television series concludes. It follows disgraced, isolated former Agent Fox Mulder and Dr. Dana Scully as they are reluctantly drawn back into the FBI to investigate the abduction of a female agent.
The X-Files creator Chris Carter was told to tone down the horror for The X-Files: I Want to Believe so it could secure a PG-13 rating, something that has irked fans of the sci-fi show ever since. Now, nearly 20 years later, fans will finally get to see The X-Files: I Want to Believe as Carter intended.
According to Disney, The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn will “faithfully restore the filmmaker’s original vision.” The new subtitle, by the way, includes the Russian for Victor Frankenstein, which feels like a nod to how this Director’s Cut has come together.
Carter actually teased this new version last year during a chat on the Fail Better With David Duchovny podcast.
“I made it too scary, basically, and I was told so by the brass at Fox, and they wanted a PG-13 movie,” Carter revealed. “So we cut it back to be a PG-13 movie, and we thought, ‘Okay, we’ve satisfied their demands.’ The critics, the people who rate the movies, said, ‘No, it’s not a PG-13 yet, you’ve got to cut it back even further.’ I can tell you that you can do more on network television, [the censors] are more permissive than they are for the movies.“
“Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended,” Carter continued. “It’s not just doing a Director’s Cut to do a Director’s Cut. It’s really kind of bringing to life something that for me was on the page and never got to the screen.“
Meanwhile, The X-Files also has a reboot in the works, helmed by Sinners’ director Ryan Coogler. It’s set to star Steve Buscemi, Amy Madigan, and Ben Foster, among others. Mulder actor Duchovny has confirmed talks with Coogler about the reboot, although it remains to be seen if he or Gillian Anderson will make an appearance.
“We intend on having both Monsters of the Week and the overarching conspiracy,” Coogler recently said of his take on The X-Files. “I’m grappling with that. But that’s what I’m doing now. Panther comes after that. I’m blessed to be working on things this cool.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
