Chris Carter Inexplicably Says Mulder and Scully “Had a Platonic Relationship” on The X-Files

It’s coming. All-new episodes of The X-Files are premiering less than a month from now, and the closer we get to the premiere date the more we’ve been rewarded with new footage, scary teaser clips, pretty animated trailers and more. But the latest quote out of the X-Files camp is, well… confusing.

In X-Files Redacted, a 30-minute special that premiered on Comcast (before being leaked online and making its rounds on the Internet, of course), creator and showrunner Chris Carter set up the scene about where the main duo currently stand coming into the revival of the show: “Mulder and Scully, for 9 years, had a platonic relationship.”

Uh… *record needle scratch*

Full disclosure: I am a fan of The X-Files. I will even admit to being a Mulder/Scully shipper–though perhaps not with the same amount of fervor that other fans possess (and bless them all the more for it). However, I find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone could come out of watching the original show with the mindset that Mulder and Scully’s relationship was entirely platonic, even if they didn’t necessarily want those two characters to end up together.

Of course, fans immediately took to Twitter under the hashtag #PlatonicActivity to pair it against some quotes and scenes from the show that are undeniably more-than-friendly:

Beyond all that, it seems weird for Carter to be professing a platonic relationship now when Mulder and Scully themselves, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, have both spoken at length about the intimacy between their characters (and joked that there was once a M/S sex scene filmed but left on the cutting room floor once upon a time). They might not necessarily be a couple at the start of the show’s return, but it’s a little disingenuous to write off the undeniable chemistry Anderson and Duchovny brought to the table as friends-only. Of course, Carter famously never wanted Mulder and Scully to become a couple to begin with, but it’s kind of late to retcon all of that history now.

Sorry, Chris Carter, but I don’t think “platonic” is the word you’re looking for here.

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Carly Lane