An unreleased X-Files film is set to debut on Disney Plus next month.
Before Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files hits the scene, Disney is set to release a fresh cut of the 2008 thriller, The X-Files: I Want to Believe. According to a recent announcement, The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Director’s Cut will be available on Disney Plus starting June 11.
Chris Carter, the film’s director and the mind behind The X-Files, first hinted at this new version during a podcast episode of Fail Better with David Duchovny last June. He shared, “I made it too scary,” explaining that Fox aimed for a PG-13 rating, while his original vision would have landed an R rating, forcing him to tone it down. Carter also mentioned that he had to further reduce the film’s intensity after the censors reviewed it, meaning the final product didn’t fully reflect his original intentions.
“Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended,” Carter stated on the podcast. “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.”
Previously, an “Extended Cut” was included in the DVD releases of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which added just over three minutes of footage. However, reviews indicated that it only made minor changes, extending certain scenes, particularly the more graphic ones, in a story centered around a case in West Virginia involving body mutilation.
While an outlet reached out to Disney for more details about this new cut, they did not receive a response before publication. Based on Carter’s comments during the podcast, it seems this will be a completely new version that aims to deliver the experience that The X-Files: I Want to Believe was meant to provide from the start.