The X-Files creator responds to Gillian Anderson's threat to quit

The X-Files creator Chris Carter is responding to star Gillian Anderson’s saying she’s done with the veteran sci-fi series.

Anderson has previously stated she plans to quit playing Dana Scully after X-Files season 11, which has its season premiere Wednesday night on Fox.

Addressing fans during a Reddit AMA, Carter said, “For me, the show has always been Mulder and Scully. So the idea of doing the show without her isn’t something I’ve ever had to consider.”

Carter also teased that the season finale might address Anderson’s uncertain future participation with the show after a fan asked if her character was given “a proper goodbye.” He noted, “I think you will want to sit down and watch the [season] finale very carefully.”

Fans gave Carter some grief about Scully never having a desk in the original series, while her partner Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) had one. “I resent the calling of it misogyny, unintentional or not,” he replied. “… If Gillian comes back, Scully will get a desk.”

Previously Carter teased to EW that the season finale could be a shocker. “Things are often sacrificed in the finale. That’s the interesting thing for me. There’s a vertical corner in the final that I think will get people’s attention…”

So it sounds like — one way or another — the finale takes into consideration that Anderson might not be back … while also making it possible for her to return.

Overall, Carter told fans to expect some big mythology shakeups this year. “The complexity of detail blurs over time and while we took great pains to make it all logical and in our minds believable in an X-Files sense, you are probably going to be able to nitpick,” he says. “The season 11 mythology is a continuation of the original mythology, but with a big 90-degree turn.”

While Anderson might indeed never reprise her iconic character after the new batch of 10 episodes, you can never say never with this series. The X-Files has famously had many starts and stops and incarnations over its 25 years on and off the air, and always seems to manage to find another life — the last batch of new episodes two years ago was also one of the season’s highest-rated dramas.

UPDATE: After you’ve watched the premiere, read our interview with Carter explaining that very shocking revelation that was 18 years in the making.