Himesh Patel has boarded Ryan Coogler’s upcoming “X-Files” reboot, TheWrap has learned.
Patel will star opposite Danielle Deadwyler, who has been attached to the pilot since it got the greenlight at Hulu in February. The actors reunite after both starring in “Station Eleven.”
Patel and Deadwyler will star as two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena, per the official logline.
The project hails from Coogler, who will write, direct and executive produce via his production company, Proximity Media, while Jennifer Yale has been tapped to serve as showrunner and executive producer.
Also attached to executive produce are Proximity Media’s Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler and original series creator Chris Carter, with Proximity’s Simone Harris serving as a co-executive producer. Proximity Media’s director of development Dezi Gallegos will also help to oversee the pilot. 20th Television produces the reboot for Hulu’s Onyx Collective.
Patel’s TV career has included British soap “EastEnders,” “Damned,” “Avenue 5,” “The Luminaries,” “Black Mirror,” “The Franchise” and, more recently, “Bait.”
His film credits include “Yesterday,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Tenet,” “Good Grief,” “The Assessment,” “Greedy People” and “Bubble & Speak,” among others.
The sci-fi series, which starred Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Mitch Pileggi and more, originally ran on Fox from 1993 to 2002. Carter, Anderson and Duchovny all returned for two additional seasons that aired in 2016 and 2018, as well as two feature films in 1998 and 2008.
