Why David Duchovny Left The X-Files (And Later Came Back)

For fans of "The X-Files" who watched the seminal '90s show live as it aired, the biggest mystery wasn't actually what happened to Mulder's sister: It was what happened to the show after Season 7.

Chris Carter's deeply influential sci-fi series became a phenomenon in its early years, thanks in large part to the chemistry and odd-couple charm of stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. As spaced-out FBI agent Fox Mulder, Duchovny was one half of the show's quirky heart (the other, of course, was Anderson's grounded Agent Dana Scully), so when he started disappearing from episodes in the show's eighth season, it was clear that something was up behind the scenes.

According to coverage at the time, a lawsuit against the network, a budding career, and a deal that left Mulder out of the action all contributed to Duchovny's eventual exit from the show. The original run of "The X-Files" didn't live long after the actor left, wrapping up nine seasons' worth of mysteries after its first Mulder-less year.

Long before he returned as Mulder for the 2008 film "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" and a two-season Fox revival series, Duchovny's presence in the show had begun to shrink. Production moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles after Season 5 at Duchovny's request, and by the new millennium, writers were shaping the Season 7 finale into a tentative conclusion in case it didn't come back in the fall. The series did return, but Mulder only appeared in 11 of Season 8's 21 episodes — in a plot arc that saw him abducted by aliens while his sort-of lover Scully became mysteriously pregnant. Mulder's absence was the result of a contract negotiation in which Duchovny asked for "a less grueling work schedule as well as more money," per Space.com.

David Duchovny's return was also complicated by a lawsuit he filed in 1999, claiming (per Variety) that Fox had shut him out of agreed-upon profits by engaging in a practice called "self-dealing." Per the suit, Duchovny said he was promised profit participation in 1995 in exchange for extending his contract, but Fox then sold the series to its own affiliate networks instead of pursuing the best deal. The suit claimed that this tactic, along with a payment allegedly made to Chris Carter, led to "intentionally reduced revenues." This was neither the first nor the last time Fox was sued for allegedly sketchy accounting; "M*A*S*H" star Alan Alda settled a suit against Fox for self-dealing in 1999, and "Bones" stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel sued for missing profit shares from that series in 2005. In all three cases, the parties involved eventually reached a settlement.

Duchovny negotiated a new contract between seasons, and in May 2000, he reached a deal to appear in 11 episodes, just a day before Fox's fall schedule was set to be announced. "I am pleased we were able to come to an agreement that enables me to remain part of 'The X-Files,'" the actor said at the time, with Space reporting that he had refused to return to the show until the lawsuit wrapped up. "Now that all the business issues have been settled," he continued, "I'm looking forward to going back to work."

Multder's return didn't last long. A year later, David Duchovny's exit from "The X-Files" was made official,  and his slow-burn exit coincided with the series' somewhat awkward introduction of a new pair of agents, Robert Patrick's John Doggett and Annabeth Gish's Monica Reyes. Fans rejected the replacement characters, and Duchovny later told Zap2It (via The New York Post) that he "felt somewhat peripheral" when he reappeared in the back half of Season 8. Duchovny appeared in just two episodes of the show's ninth season.

Coverage at the time blamed Duchovny's exit on his hopes for a movie career, and he told Zap2It he was done with "The X-Files" with no plans to cameo or return. The mysterious pull of the otherworldly show lured the actor back eventually, and he reunited with Anderson for a 2008 film as well as 16 additional episodes in the 2010s. The actor, writer, and director now hosts the podcast "Fail Better"; part of his continued introspection involves looking back at the circumstances that led to his "X-Files" exit. "In 2002, I would've said, 'I'll never do TV again,'" he has said. "But I'd have only meant, 'I'm not doing 25 episodes a year again.'"