The X Files Discovered Women Can Write & Direct TV Shows, Too

The truth is out there and (hopefully doesn't) shock you: women can write things, too! That's the startling discovery Chris Carter realized after news broke last month that he'd hired only male writers for the upcoming 11th season of his cult TV show The X Files. As IndieWire reported, Carter had brought together a band of men to write for next year's season of the rebooted show.

Related | The Double Life of Gillian Anderson

As you might expect in 2017, that didn't exactly fly with the internet--especially given that women are still fighting for equality in front of, and behind, the camera on television. One notable critic of the boy's club writing room was the star of the series, Gillian Anderson, who has long since ran out of fucks to give about keeping quiet in the face of gender discrimination--she was vocal about initially getting offered half of the pay her costar David Duchovny was offered for the show's revival. She took to Twitter in response to the news to add another layer of burn to the sexism behind the camera, noting that only two of the 207 episodes of the series were directed by women.

This subtle shade seems to have worked because, when the controversy came up at Fox's executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour, CEO Dana Walden gave some necessary updates on the show's diversity problem. There are now three women on the writing staff and two women in the season's roster of directors.

The news is definitely an incremental step in the right direction, but it also feels like Carter did bare minimum done to avoid criticism. We can only hope that moving forward, the show can heed the words of Anderson's tweet and realize that the future truly is female.