More familiar faces are returning for Fox’s highly anticipated revival of long-running sci-fi mystery series The X-Files.
The Lone Gunmen, a trio of enigmatic figures played by Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood, will appear in the upcoming six-episode revival, Haglund revealed over Twitter yesterday.
The actor’s confirmation, below:
yep, it’s true. https://t.co/w718E0y6i8
— DEAN HAGLUND (@dhaglund) July 22, 2015
Complicating matters a little bit is the fact that the three characters, conspiracy theorists and hackers who assisted Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) on multiple cases, all died in a season nine episode of The X-Files, sacrificing themselves to contain a bioterrorist threat. Though their deaths were technically retconned in comic-book series The X-Files: Season 10 (set after 2008’s movie The X-Files: I Want to Believe), it’s unclear whether the revival will consider that canonical.
Regardless, it’s exciting that the Lone Gunmen are joining an already packed roster of familiar X-Files players in the show’s return. In addition to Mulder and Scully, Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) are already due for appearances.
New characters include Community‘s Joel McHale as a conservative talk show host who forms an unusual bond with Mulder, as well as The Americans‘ Annet Mahendru, Flight of the Conchords‘ Rhys Darby, Silicon Valley‘s Kumail Nanjiani, The Flash‘s Robbie Amell and Six Feet Under‘s Lauren Ambrose. Though details on most of those characters are being kept under wraps, Amell and Ambrose are playing cool and collected agents who become involved in an investigation.
The X-Files is set to return to airwaves on January 24 on Fox.