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Chris Carter Thought the FBI Was Going to Shut Down The X-Files, Like Life Imitating Art

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Photo: Fox Broadcasting/Getty Images

In Chris Carter’s monumentally popular show The X-Files, Fox Mulder tries to uncover the nefarious secrets of the government, and for his efforts is routinely chastised, demoted, and, eventually, excommunicated. The government shuts down the X-Files several times on the show, and, according to Carter, almost did so in real life. “I had someone come up to me during the original run of the series, who said they worked in some high place in a secret government agency, [and] said that we were very close to the truth,” Carter said to The Huffington Post. He went on:

I didn’t know whether to take that person at their word or not. I can tell you this: When I wrote the [1993] pilot, I called the FBI to do some research, and they were nice enough, but didn’t really give me the time of day. Then, all of a sudden, as we got close to airing, the FBI called and said, “Who are you and what are you doing?” And for a second, I thought it was going to be the long arm of the law coming in to shut me down.

Carter says they patched things up and he became buddies with the bureau, hanging out, shooting the breeze (literally — they took him to a shooting range). Maybe Carter is just paranoid. Maybe what he heard was really just the planet Venus?

Chris Carter Thought FBI Would Cancel X-Files