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Ryan Coogler’s career is at an all-time high, following the box office success and awards acclaim of his 2025 film, Sinners. Fans have been earnestly wondering what Coogler’s next film could be; he’s already signed on to direct Marvel’s Black Panther 3, and he may be bringing Denzel Washington to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But after Sinners, fans have as much faith in a Ryan Coogler passion-project as much as they do in his work in a major franchise, but what they ultimately may get is a combination of both.
A new report has updates on Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files, which is currently in post-production. One part of that report inadvertently reveals what Coogler’s next film could be, and some would argue it’s a perfect follow-up to a film like Sinners.
Ryan Coogler’s Next Movie May Not Be Up to Him
According to a technical breakdown on The X-Files (via World of Reel), Coogler’s pilot for The X-Files was shot on 65mm film, with Sinners‘ director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw acting as the cinematographer. It’s a unique choice to shoot a modern TV show on classic film stock; the report goes further to state that Coogler is constructing the pilot to look like a cinematic film so that he can possibly give it a theatrical run.
It’s made very clear that Disney and Hulu (which are producing The X-Files) haven’t made any concrete decision about The X-Files just yet: whether to greenlight a full series, or give the pilot a theatrical run, but if Ryan Coogler turns in something that looks like it could have real legs at the theater, then Disney-Hulu may have all the reason in the world to give The X-Files (an at least limited) run in theaters, before it hits streaming on Hulu. That’s especially if the regular series isn’t picked up; scaling back to a feature-length standalone would be an acceptable compromise.
The wild thing is seeing Coogler even remotely in this kind of position: Sinners put up a historic 16 nominations at the 2026 Oscars, winning four, including a milestone Best Cinematography win for Akrapaw, the first woman to receive that award. Hearing that Coogler and Arkapaw have shot an X-Files pilot that could be framed as a feature should be the easiest project to not only greenlight, but shamelessly exploit as both a theatrical and streaming feature. Films like KPop Demon Hunters have shattered stigma around the theatrical-to-streaming release strategy (or vice versa). So there is money on the table to be made here.
The X-Files reboot stars Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel as its two lead agents, with the latter recently confirming that Coogler’s pilot is done filming. “I don’t want to say anything that’s going to get me disappeared,” Patel told The Direct. “Needless to say, myself and Danielle Deadwyler are playing completely new characters, and we just wrapped on the pilot. If we get to do more… we’ll see where we go from there.”
The pilot will also feature Oscar-winner Amy Madigan (Weapons), Steve Buscemi, and Ben Foster (Hell or High Water, 3:10 to Yuma). Jennifer Yale (Dexter, Your Friends & Neighbors) is on deck to serve as showrunner on the series, if it moves forward.
X-Files Reboot Star Reveals Why Hulu Hasn’t Yet Greenlit a Full Season of the Sci-Fi Series
