Current season is it for ‘Scully,’ actress insists At a glance

“The X-Files” airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox, including WTTE-TV (Channel 28).

LOS ANGELES — The truth is out there regarding the future of “The X-Files,” and it isn’t good for fans of the Fox show.

Unless aliens kidnap Gillian Anderson and persuade her to stay on the show, this season will be her last as Dana Scully.

“It’s just that there’s lots of things that I want to do in my life and in my career,” said Anderson during the Television Critics Association press tour at Fox earlier this month.

“It’s been an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary character, and I am hugely grateful.”

The actress is eager for a fresh challenge, she said.

“I’ve done this now for decades, and it’s time for me to hang up Scully’s hat — it just is. The next couple of years are quite full, and there are lots of different things that I want to do and I’m being asked to do, and I want to be able to explore them without being tied to a series.”

Anderson has been playing Scully since “The X-Files” made its debut on Fox in 1993.

The Illinois native was 25 then, and her credits were highly limited. Fans immediately locked on to the chemistry between Scully and Mulder (David Duchovny), and the role became the defining job in her acting career.

Anderson had no idea what to expect when she signed on to the series but quickly learned what being on a series as popular as “The X-Files” meant.

“It was all such a big whirlwind. ... I feel like every time I’m asked to reflect, I have a completely different and new perspective on what it was and what it meant and a new understanding of what it might have meant for other people,” Anderson, 49, said.

“And this year, I feel like for the first time I truly understood how special and unique the dynamic was between Mulder and Scully. It’s taken me awhile.”

The love fans have shown the character is one reason that series creator Chris Carter and Fox officials have both said that they wouldn’t want to make new episodes of “The X-Files” without Anderson.

That means Duchovny will have to say farewell to Mulder.

During the press tour, Duchovny joked that he has tried to say goodbye to Mulder many times and failed. Anderson pointed out that Duchovny left the series after the eighth season (appearing in only two episodes of season nine). Instead of the show ending, Robert Patrick stepped in to take on the “X-Files” duties.

“They all went, and they did the show without me,” Duvochny said. “So how do you like that?”

The actor said he’s OK with whatever decision is made about the show’s future.

“I’m good either way,” he said. “I’m good with this being the end. I’m good with it not being the end. You know, as I said, I can’t see the future. I don’t know. Whatever comes across my desk, I take a look at.”

Anderson, however, insists that she is done with the series.

“This is it for me. I’m really serious. I have so much respect for these guys, and I have respect for Scully, and I have respect for David, and it’s really sad,” Anderson said. “But I’m finished, and that’s the end of that.”