Broadcast OrderRecommended
0 / 6 watchedSeasons and films in the order they originally aired, with each movie sitting in the break it was written to fill. The only arrangement worth using on a first run.
- 1 The X-Files Seasons 1 to 5 September 10, 1993 to May 17, 1998. Season 5 closes with 'The End,' an episode written to hand straight off to the movie.
- 2 The X-Files: Fight the Future Released June 19, 1998, between the season 5 finale and the season 6 premiere, continuing the mythology case that 'The End' set up.
- 3 The X-Files Seasons 6 to 9 November 8, 1998 to May 19, 2002. Fox renewed the show rather than letting it become films-only, and 'The Truth' closes the original run.
- 4 The X-Files: I Want to Believe Released July 25, 2008. A standalone case with no mythology thread, so it can wait until after season 9 without costing you anything.
- 5 The X-Files Season 10 Six episodes from January 24 to February 22, 2016, branded by Fox as an event series and picking up fourteen years later.
- 6 The X-Files Season 11 Ten episodes from January 3 to March 21, 2018. 'My Struggle IV' is the most recent episode of the series.
About The X-Files
The X-Files premiered September 10, 1993 and ran nine seasons and 202 episodes, ending with 'The Truth' on May 19, 2002. Fight the Future opened June 19, 1998, in the gap between the season 5 finale 'The End' and the season 6 premiere 'The Beginning,' and it continues the same mythology case rather than starting a new one.
The series came back with six episodes from January 24 to February 22, 2016 and ten more from January 3 to March 21, 2018, bringing the total to 218 episodes across eleven seasons. I Want to Believe, released July 25, 2008, is a standalone case that can sit anywhere after season 9.
Good to know
Broadcast order is the only list here because the films line up with the breaks between seasons, so no other arrangement is needed. An R-rated director's cut of I Want to Believe began streaming on Hulu and Disney+ on August 14, 2026, though it tells the same story. Ryan Coogler's reboot received a pilot order at Hulu in February 2026, filmed over the following months, and still had not been picked up to series as of September 2026, which is why it gets no entry below.
