Ten Live-Action Dramas That Deserve An Animated Spin-Off More Than The X-Files

There’s a definite wave of nostalgia that’s swept over television and film that’s led to the revival and reboot of plenty of properties, many of which should have probably remained dead. It’s been interesting to track how this trend has evolved in recent years and how there’s been a sudden interest in animated spin-offs of established properties. The newest example of this is the freshly announced animated X-Files spin-off, X-Files: Albuquerque, which is set to chronicle the X-Files’ “B-Team” as they investigate particularly irrelevant supernatural phenomena. It’s hard to not think that this year’s Star Trek: Lower Decks, which utilizes what’s essentially the same premise, didn’t have an influence on the pitch of X-Files: Albuquerque. The only problem with X-Files: Albuquerque is that this premise is completely antithetical to what the series stands for.

In The X-Files, the titular department of the FBI were the B-Team. They were given the strange cases that nobody else would look at, so the idea of a lesser version of that is just redundant. Furthermore, the entire ethos of Mulder’s character is that nothing was too small or ridiculous for him to look into, which is why The X-Files was so entertaining in the first place. Evil trees, Cher-loving monsters, or sinister video games were all fair game and as important to Mulder and Scully as an alien invasion. It’s understandable why an ­X-Files spin-off of this nature would try to concoct an angle that doesn’t involve Mulder and Scully, but in the process they’ve completely undermined the power of the original series and already written themselves into a bit of a problem before the show has even started. A lighter and “animated” version of The X-Files was even attempted to some degree in the X-Files: Origins comics, which were basically “X-Files Babies,” but those failed to catch on.

In reality, X-Files: Albuquerque likely came to be, not because someone thought that there needed to be an animated version of The X-Files, but more so that parent conglomerates are dusting off their libraries of intellectual properties and seeing what could mesh with this new fad. X-Files: Albuquerque might seem harmless, but it’s such a misguided proposition that it’s worth highlighting a number of other FOX live-action drama series that wouldn’t just also benefit from animated spin-offs, but would be actively better ideas than X-Files: Albuquerque.

Fringe

Fringe is really the ultimate answer here and in terms of storytelling there really wouldn’t be much of a difference between an animated version of Fringe and The X-Files. Both deal with the investigation of supernatural events and creatures, but Fringe arguably perfected The X-Files’ science and found a way to brilliantly pair together “monster of the week” stories with the series’ larger mythology. The major difference here is that Fringe didn’t outstay its welcome and is ideal for a return, but with a project like this not being as disruptive as a reboot of the series. Much like with The X-Files, the Fringe Division usually saw no case as being too small, but it’s not as ingrained in the premise and characters as it is with The X-Files.

Additionally, Fringe’s whole multiple timeline angle offers even more potential. The show could even be set on an Earth that’s full of benign Fringe cases. Fringe’s weird science looked incredible in live-action, but the advent of animation could help them explore a level of oddities that were previously impossible. In a perfect world, instead of X-Files: Albuquerque we’d be getting Fringe: Earth 521 or something to that effect. Fringe even had an episode that was partially animated, so it’s not even that crazy of a transition.

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