Remember X-Files: Regeneration, the second X-Files movie? Because a longer, apparently scarier cut is headed to Disney+.
The journey of the X-Files saga is long and far from straightforward. There was first the film X-Files, le film : Combattre le futur, released in 1998 between seasons 5 and 6, riding the wave of its success. Then came the near-exit of David Duchovny, aka Fox Mulder, beginning with season 7, foreshadowing the show’s end around 2002 with season 9. Yet he returned to team up with Gillian Anderson for the second film, X-Files: Régénération, released in 2008, and later for seasons 10 and 11, in 2016 and 2018.
Thus, X-Files comprises 11 seasons, 218 episodes and two films, spread over 25 years. Not to mention the spin-offs Millennium and The Lone Gunmen, which prove just how deeply Chris Carter’s creation defined its era. It’s no surprise, then, to see the studio attempt to reboot the franchise with a fresh X-Files series, overseen by Ryan Coogler (Sinners, Black Panther).
And since the back catalog remains a major business driver for X-Files, a longer version of the film X-Files: Régénération is coming to Disney+.
X-FILES : I WANT TO BELIEVE AGAIN
What is the link between X-Files and Disney? Mickey Mouse acquired in 2019 the studio 20th Century Fox, the owner of the brand. That’s why the new X-Files series from Ryan Coogler is currently in development at Hulu, Disney’s property. And it’s for this reason that news of an extended version of the second film slipped into a Disney+/press release, with one line:
“Thursday, June 11:
The X-Files : I Want to Believe – Director’s Cut | Bonus Feature“
That means a director’s cut of X-Files: Régénération, i.e. a longer version supervised by Chris Carter himself, will soon be available. At least in the United States.
For serious X-Files fans, there’s not much of a surprise. In June 2025, during David Duchovny’s Fail Better podcast, Chris Carter specifically teased this extended version:
“I just got the green light to make the director’s cut of Regeneration. You can’t know how happy I am. I had made it too scary, basically, and that’s what Fox executives told me, wanting a PG-13 (not recommended for children under 13, per the American rating board).
So we re-edited the film to be PG-13, and we figured we’d answered their request. But the critics, the people who handle film ratings, said: ‘No, it’s not PG-13 enough yet; you need to cut more.’ I can tell you you can do more than that on television. They allow more on TV than in films.
Now I have the chance to go back and make the scary movie I’ve always wanted to make. It isn’t just about making a director’s cut for the sake of it. It’s truly a way to bring to life something that existed on paper for me and has never been seen on screen.”
Chris Carter directed the film X-Files: Régénération, which he co-wrote with his steadfast Frank Spotnitz, one of the key figures behind the cult series — he directed two episodes, wrote some sixty, and was among the producers. When it landed in theaters in 2008, this second cinematic outing didn’t exactly explode at the box office, grossing not even $70 million against an official budget of $30 million. It was a far cry from the fervor that surrounded the first film, X-Files, which pulled in nearly $190 million in 1998 on a budget that was, admittedly, roughly twice as high.
In cinemas, X-Files: Régénération ran 1 hour 44 minutes. We’ll see whether there are many unseen scenes or images, because if it’s just a few extra shots here and there, it’ll be hard to rescue the movie. At least it will have allowed Chris Carter to explore both faces of X-Files on the big screen: the mythology-conspiracy-alien angle in the first film, and the stand-alone weekly monster-of-the-week story detached from the broader arc in the second.
