The X-Files Is Leaving Netflix This Month, Here Are The Details
The rise of streaming services like Netflix has allowed us to binge like we never have before, but it has also lead a new problem that we never would have expected to arise before. As rights and deals run their course and expire, easy access to shows comes and goes. Every month, Netflix adds more titles to its list, while at the same time others disappear. Some come back eventually, others don’t. There was a big to-do a while back, when it looked like Doctor Who was leaving the streaming service (it didn’t), and Red Dwarf is no longer available, and now it looks like if you want to marathon The X-Files, you better do it by the end of the month.
You can handle that, right? Watching nine seasons, all 202 episodes of The X-Files in less than a months? I have faith you can pull this off by April 1. You may have to call in sick to work, but that’s a small price to pay. What are you doing still reading this, you have more important business to take care right now.
While it seems like there is always talk of this, there has been a lot of recent chatter about rebooting The X-Files. It’s been gone for 15 years, but given the success Fox had with 24: Live Another Day, they’ve been kicking around the idea of a limited series, an idea that both stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have expressed at least cursory interest in. Still, at this point it’s all just talk, but it’s a possibility, and considering that just about everything has been revisited, stranger things have happened.
The X-Files leaving Netflix isn’t the end all, however. Fox reportedly has deals in place with both Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, so if you have a subscription to either of those services, you’ll still have access to all nine seasons. And if you don’t, perhaps this will be just the push you need to make the move.
Other Fox-owned shows, like Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Firefly, were also reportedly on the chopping block as well, but the two sides have reached a deal that will allow them to remain on Netflix streaming. So the news could be much, much worse for genre fans.
This is just the way of the world we live in, and by now most of us are pretty used to this revolving door. And if we really need an X-Files fix, there are ways to get one. Hell, there are probably a lot of you out there who already own all nine season on DVD. No one can take that away from you.
