“The X-Files” Season 11 will have some female writers and directors, but still not enough (if you ask us)

We’re hearing good news from the basement of the FBI: The X-Files isn’t as stuck in the ’90s as we first thought. Apparently, there will be some female writers and directors behind the scenes of the upcoming season. And while we are glad the network is making some changes, there’s still plenty of work to do on that front.

We’re so excited that The X-Files is coming back for Season 11, but it’s not all sunshine and roses.

A little while back, we found out that there weren’t any female writers working on the 10-episode season. Then, Scully herself, Gillian Anderson, pointed out the lack of female directors in the history of the series. (There were only two including Anderson.) And the reason given for this was basically that creator Chris Carter hired people who had worked on the show before Season 10.

At Fox’s Television Critics Association presentation, chairman Dana Walden announced that there are actually two women writing on Season 11. And there will also be two women directing episodes. She also mentioned that half the directors wouldn’t be white dudes for Season 11. This is good news. Still, more could be done.

Here’s what Walden had to say:

“I think that Chris [Carter] is making moves in the right direction. After more than two hundred episodes, the fan base has very high expectations that the new episodes would be consistent with the original, and there is a tendency to use people who worked on the original.

This just goes to highlight how terribly The X-Files has done when it comes to diversity in the first place. We hope Carter and company move in the right direction looking ahead, and take action to show they’re serious about the issue. Because it’s pretty sad when 20% of the writers and directors being women is a significant improvement.