X-Files production will return to Vancouver

Production of The X-Files will return to Vancouver this summer, show stars David Duchovny and 'Smoking Man' William B. Davis have confirmed after much speculation.

Fox Broadcasting Company announced on Tuesday that Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will reprise their roles as agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in a reboot of the popular sci-fi series that went off the air 13 years ago.

The internet's ears did more than just perk up.

The cult classic will return to Fox with a limited series of six new episodes — and to Vancouver, where Mulder and Scully were filmed investigating mysterious FBI cases for five of the show's nine seasons.

Duchovny ended speculation over whether the show would return to Canada in an interview with The New York Times.

Asked if he would be shooting the new show there, Duchovny responded simply, "Yeah."

Prodded by further questions, the Aquarius and Californication star admitted he loves Vancouver, and only stopped shooting there during the original series because he and then-wife Tea Leoni, who was based in L.A., wanted to start a family.

Vancouver-based Davis spilled the beans to CTV.

Davis has said The X-Files cemented the city as a place to shoot film and television shows.

"To have a show that was that big, that popular, that employed that many people ... definitely put Vancouver on the map as a production place," he told CBC.