So they're going to make either Mulder or Scully black and/or gay. Maybe add some "non-binary" crap in there, too, since we obviously have to make the leading duo as non-representative of the general population as possible. They're definately going to make Skinner a woman, because, well, "Deputy Director of the FBI", that's got to be a woman nowadays, mark my words. Now Scully, he/she will most likely remain white, and they'll probably make him/her somewhat conservative, given he/she's supposed to be the uncool but competent skeptic playing off Mulder's free spirit, unconventional thinker persona. Let's face it, you all know in, your heart o' hearts, that's the kind of thinking the people creating this do.
But, on to an equally puzzling/annoying point: why? Why do a reboot in the first place. Granted, the obvious answer is "Because we are hacks with zero remaining creativity, and studios are more eager to shell out funding for properties that worked out in the past rather than try something new".
Yet the deeper question remains. Why? "X Files" fully is a product of the 1990ies. It's post cold war in a sense that it plays in a world where the nuclear apocalypse that kept everybody occupied is no longer imminent, no longer even at the back of people's mind. A world where the west has won, where no outer threats remain, and where that then lead to society, to audiences being more open to stories that look at government wrongdoings, at odd local legends, at alien conspiracies. It's a series very specifically set against the backdrop of emerging new subcultures -- hackers, the early internet, conspiracy theories pushed by small magazines and talk personalities, and a certain unease of parts of the populace at a state that suddenly seemed overbearing now that the threat of the Red Army was gone. It was also relatively new in so far that it managed to cover a lot of ground, thematically: cryptids, aliens, government conspiracies, the supernatural; it had it all.
Nowadays, none of that is particularly new or impressive. Cryptids and the supernatural stuff have been done five times over by shows like, well, Supernatural, Grimm and others, accumulating double digit seasons combined of that stuff. Hundreds of thousands of stories and narrations online bolster that field, so it's neither fresh nor niche anymore. Hacking is an everyday occurence. The internet is everywhere and has made people more transparent and traceable than even the wildest 90ies conspiary theories imagined. Shows like Black Mirror have worked in that field, among others.
Government conspiracies? Yeah, in the 90ies the stuff the X-Files handled appeared way out there with just enough of a whiff of possibility to keep the viewer thinking, doubting, processing fringe knowledge.
Twenty five years later, with the internet being in everybody's pocket 24/7, with decades of unprecedented government surveillance, obvious propaganda/falsehoods being peddled on screen, Wikileaks, drone attacks controlled by people sitting halfway around the globe, the controversies surrounding CoViD, GMOs, NWO etc.?
The kind of topics X-Files handled - subliminal influence and mind control, medical tests on unsuspected populaces, frame jobs, etc. - all feel like reality has caught up to them and overtaken them with the speed of a Nascar race car.
The idea of the conspiracy theory in X-Files was always to leave you with enough doubt to ask yourself: "could something like this really happen", while equally returning to the warm safety of your ordinary lives where, of course, something like that never truly happened. That was part of the charm.
Who is this supposed to be aimed at when probably half the population will immediately and emphatically answer "could something like this really happen" with "Yes, it could, and it does, and it's probably way worse than what that show even tries to portray!" ?
So, who is the target audience for this? X-Files was, in many ways, subversive. The fact that they put it front and center that it'll be a "diverse cast" reboot already tells you that this'll be as mainstream and bland as it gets.
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