We know. Usually you have everything tied up and pretty from us just a few minutes after anything X-Files surfaces. Excuse us this delay because we're literally exhausted from the fantastic day we had yesterday!
We took pictures, we found video, we blogged about it, we met amazing philes and all in all, this year's SDCC is indeed a celebration to The X-Files.
Today is just the second day of the convention and we still have quite a few events to go, but here it is our round up from yesterday's X-Files activities.
You can also find our pictures and the ones we've sourced from around the net here:
And this is our bullet point summary of the whole panel as we live blogged on Twitter
The panel started promptly with a collage of important scenes from the show, followed by an introduction by Michael Schneider, the moderator of the show. After he introduced the writing staff invited to the panel (Darin and Glen Morgan, John Shiban, Vince Gilligan, Howard Gordon, James Wong and David Amann) he proceeded to introduce Chris Carter. The crowd gave a standing ovation to the creator and showrunner of the series. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson followed, making a dramatic entrance to the delight of the fans, wielding flashlights much like the ones they used on the show.
Chris Carter reminisced about how they approached FOX to pitch the show, and how they passed on it at first. He used visual aids to present the idea to the studio and Gillian was curious which kind of aids did he use.
Anderson also joked about the question of whether Mulder and Scully had gotten together at some point, "We shot a sex scene, its hidden somewhere," she said between laughs, to Duchovny's surprise. "I bet you've said that before." She completed also adding that something had happened between their characters since they indeed had a child together.
Vince Gilligan shared that he loved the series before he even got to write for it, and how he learned everything he knows and uses in his own show from working on The X-Files. David Duchovny added that the show was so flexible that it could encompass many ideas that he always thought they should come back to and do a third movie. On this topic, Chris Carter dodged the question a number of times during the panel, but Gillian Anderson showed her support of the idea. While she's not drawn to the option of bringing back the show on a limited series, she would come back for XF3, and the fans went crazy at her response.
Anderson also reminisced about how she didn't realize that Mulder was so attractive: "I would have gone there a lot sooner!" she said and the crowd hooted and whistled.
Chris Carter seems to think that if the show were on today it would still be very valid, specially with all the NSA topics out there; how you use the technology such as cellphones and computers would have of course be the main difference, but the paranoia would remain the same.
Darin Morgan spoke about what a delight it was to work with David and Gillian, and joked about his own role as the infamous Flukeman. John Shiban also had stories to tell when he spoke about how his own son became part of X-Files history, playing the first incarnation of the newborn baby William, Mulder and Scully's son. Jerry Shiban came on stage and Gillian joked that he could perfectly well be their son as the young man resembles her.
Chris Carter also spoke about the Season 10 comics that have just been released and how working with Joe Harris has been a great collaboration, with great ideas and stories that can stand on its own. On that note, (SPOILERS) they also spoke about the return of The Lone Gunmen to the storyline, and their demise in the original series. John Shiban spoke about writing "Jump The Shark" and a logical closure to the characters. They also spoke about how the character of Frohike came about.
When asked about their favorite episodes and scariest moments, Glen Morgan spoke about "Home" - for him it was a good moment to talk about Scully's desire to be a mother some day, and actually analyzing what a true home is. David also remembered about teaching Scully how to hit a baseball in "The Unnatural" and the dance at the end of "Post Modern Prometheus".
Gillian also speaks of the conversation on the rock from "Quagmire", which she admits to not remember very much and David joked that that's the one where he confesses that he was born with one leg! The panel discussed their favorite bad guys: the Flukeman, Eddie Van Blundht, - Howard Gordon joked that Darin Morgan should have shown everyone his tail. James Wong said that his favorite was Eugene Tooms. Gillian agreed but that he also didn't like the "big oil guy", not remembering exactly the character she was referring to and Chris joked about if she had even seen the show. David remembered how hard it was to react to some of the bad guys because they were composed later on CGI, and John Shiban added that Chris always pushed them to make their bad guys scarier. Carter added that to him the scarier ones were the Peacock brothers and the Well Manicured man, played by John Neville. The mention of the late actor brought cheers from the audience.
One of the audience members asked what would Mulder and Scully do if they went on a real date, to which Anderson deadpanned "Have sex." Duchovny added that then they would have dinner and Carter completed saying that it would probably be BBQ. This exchange caused and eruption of cheers and laughter from the fans. Chris said that they fell in love in the pilot, the minute that she walked into the X-Files basement office.
They also spoke of the "Scully Effect" where thousands of women have been inspired in their personal and professional paths by Scully's choices. Gillian appreciated how her character's strength, how people listened to her and she was a decent human being, Carter spoke about how Scully was his fantasy woman: strong, smart, stubborn, resourceful and tough, how her upbringing caused her to be a multidimensional character since she was spiritual but at the same time a scientist that stuck to her beliefs. "She had these two warring sides to her character," said Carter.
Gillian was also asked about her experience shooting House of Mirth, how it was complicated to film and to get the story ideas through.
Chris was also asked about the fact that the mythology formula has been credited to him, and he recognized that many showrunners and writers do put it to The X-Files to create such scheme or popularizing it; the episodes "Colony" and "End Game" were the ones that allowed them to establish that format.
When asked which was their favorite place to shoot, Duchovny admitted that they grew up in Vancouver, that there would be the home of the show, which surprised Gillian, probably motivated to the constant comments back in the day that Duchovny didn't like being so far from Los Angeles, eventually motivating the show's move to California. She admitted that both crews in both cities were different but while being in Los Angeles they were allowed more time off, Vancouver always brings nostalgia to them.
When asked if Gillian would work with David in another project besides X-Files, she joked that apparently they couldn't, and David argued that there's something sacred about Mulder and Scully and that he wouldn't want them to work together outside of that.
Chris Carter couldn't avoid the XF3 question any longer, and he said that he needs a reason to get excited and do it all over again, because it is a lot of hard work, but that seeing crowds like the ones that showed at Ballroom 20 was inspiring to him.
Anderson finished up the panel by auctioning a Mulder and Scully cardboard standee, which proceeds are going to charity. Duchovny joked that this was the way they were going to fund the movie.
Online the fans followed closely this event, making the topic trend worldwide on Twitter, under the hashtag #XF20.
An additional panel for the Season 10 comics has been organized by IDW will show today. More information and pictures as they come!