By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 20 seconds ago

It’s a very interesting time to be an X-Files fan right now. Next month, Chris Carter will be releasing a director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want To Believe, which is generally considered the second worst thing in the franchise (the worst thing was that crappy revival).  But what really has the fandom excited is that the entire series is getting rebooted, with Ryan Coogler serving as showrunner. After all, this isn’t just anybody bringing a beloved series back to life; it’s the Oscar-winning writer and director behind the modern horror classic, Sinners. If there’s anybody who can restore The X-Files to its former glory, it’s this guy. 

And make no mistake, restoration is desperately needed. The original X-Files series took a nosedive after Season 5, eventually ending with one of the worst finales in television history. The second film was a critical and commercial flop, and the revival was bad enough that it should be classified as a war crime. However, Coogler has the passion, drive, and (most importantly) the talent to restore this spooky series to its former luster. It helps that he’s gone all-out: the showrunner shot the pilot on 65mm film, and he’s now considering giving this first episode a theatrical release.

The Dream Of The ’90s Is Alive On Hulu

Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files replaces David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson entirely. Instead, our pair of erstwhile FBI agents will be played by Himesh Patel and Danielle Deadwyler. This show has its own unique canon, one in which the X-Files had previously been established and, later, shut down. These new agents are tasked with reopening the division and exploring various unexplained phenomena. The show will be exclusive to Hulu and doesn’t yet have a fixed release date, though it could drop on the streaming platform as early as late 2026.

When it does, it’s going to look absolutely fabulous. That’s because Coogler shot the pilot episode on 65mm film, which is a major rarity for television. Typically, things shot in this high a quality are reserved for the big screen, and the showrunner is reportedly considering giving the X-Files reboot pilot a theatrical release. Right now, Hulu is reportedly on the fence about doing this, especially because they have only commissioned a pilot and not yet ordered an entire series. If the pilot makes it to theaters, you’ll want to see it on the biggest screen possible because Coogler hired Oscar-winning cinematographer and Sinners collaborator Autumn Durald Arkapaw to shoot the first episode.

Will The X-Files Reboot Get Canceled?

Whether the X-Files reboot gets a series order depends on how well Coogler can impress the Hulu execs. As fans of the Slayer know all too well, the powers that be at the streaming platform didn’t like the initial cut of the highly anticipated Buffy reboot, requiring reshoots. Those reshoots did not impress them, and the show ended up getting canceled altogether. After the success of Sinners, Coogler has a lot of star power and momentum going for him, but that may not be enough. After all, the canceled Buffy series was also a reboot of a highly popular genre show from the ‘90s, spearheaded by another Oscar winner: Eternals director Chloé Zhao.

Of course, the Buffy series died in large part because it was difficult to create a reboot that matched the consistently high quality of the original show. That’s not going to be a problem with The X-Files, though: the original show diminished in quality, and after that, all we got was a terrible movie and an even worse, briefly lived revival. Fans have spent years hoping to get a truly great new incarnation of this once-great show. Is Ryan Coogler the man to give it to us? As Spooky Mulder himself might say, I want to believe.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 17 seconds ago

One thing that Marvel Comics fans have long joked about is the sheer number of superheroes who are based out of New York City. Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four…believe it or not, these are just a few of the characters and groups based around the iconic city. How and why did this happen? Simple: Marvel Comics has always been located in New York City, and in the formative days of the publisher, most of the writers, artists, and editors lived in that same city. Accordingly, the stories they created reflected the lived experience of walking those streets, day in and day out.

These days, however, very few comic writers live in New York City due to its notoriously high cost of living. And now, even the company itself is forsaking the city. Earlier this week, Marvel informed its employees that it would be moving its publishing division out of Midtown and to Burbank, California, which is home to both Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company. Along with this big change, the publisher also named Stephen Wacker as its new editor-in-chief. These major shifts at the House of Ideas have one major purpose: to help Marvel Comics beat DC and become, once more, the market share leader in comic book publishing.

DC Keeps Kicking Marvel’s Butt

If you only pay attention to superhero movies, you might wonder why Marvel would fret about beating DC. After all, the DCEU ran itself into the ground trying to compete with the MCU, which is still going strong. Now, James Gunn’s DCU is floundering: Superman was a success story last year, but Supergirl, the second film in this cinematic universe, turned out to be a critical and commercial bomb. Throw in the fact that this year’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday are going to collectively make billions of dollars, and Marvel’s cinematic success is undeniable. Unfortunately, Marvel’s publishing side has been consistently losing ground to their biggest rival.

How is Marvel losing out to DC? As The Hollywood Reporter reports, Marvel “lost its position as comics market share leader for the first time this century.” In terms of numbers, ICv2 reports that DC successfully captured somewhere between 34 and 40 percent of the market share compared to Marvel’s 29 to 33 percent. This is due to multiple factors, including DC making its older works more affordable and accessible through its Compact Comics line and offering exciting new books like Absolute Batman. Compared to DC’s success, Marvel has recently looked like they were just publishing filler to keep readers interested between movies.

An Uncanny Team-Up

Now, however, Marvel is taking big swings to try to take back the market share from their greatest opponent. As Kevin Feige noted at a recent town hall event, moving remaining operations to the West Coast is intended to create better synergy between Marvel’s publication, animation, and live-action storytellers. This sentiment was echoed in a letter Brad Winderbaum (head of television, animation, comics, and franchise) and David Abdo (general manager, comics and franchise) sent to The Hollywood Reporter. “Bringing our comics, film, television, and other creative teams together will help us learn from one another, collaborate, and build on the strengths that make Marvel the true House of Ideas,” they wrote.

In a perfect world, this collaboration will give us more high-quality projects like X-Men ‘97 (when are we getting that animated cinematic universe, Brad?!) while improving the MCU, which has been very inconsistent since Avengers: Endgame. If nothing else, giving the publishing division a new editor-in-chief will give a shot in the arm to Marvel Comics and help them provide proper competition to DC once more. This, too, is good for the long-term health of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has become successful by adapting the best comics of yesteryear. The only way to make sure the films of the future rock is to make sure the comics of today don’t suck.

If that can happen, readers and viewers alike will proudly say “Make mine Marvel” yet again. Otherwise, the audience for this storied publisher might do their best impression of Spider-Man from Avengers: Infinity War by disappearing altogether. 

Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you like things large.

Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Big talk

The words are related to size.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe large things.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

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NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today’s spangram is Supersize it.

NYT Strands word list for July 19

• Giant

• Behemoth

• Leviathan

• Mammoth

• Colossum

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.