UPDATED STORY: JULY 21, 2026
The build is out there.
Gillian Anderson reprised her Emmy-winning role of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully to tease the highly anticipated Lego set based on The X-Files. In the minute-long video, Scully is relaxing in a hotel room when she gets a strange knock at the door. “I didn’t order room service,” she says.
Scully finds a box outside her door from a mystery sender, and she opens it to find thousands of Lego pieces. “I don’t remember you being so small,” she notes while holding up a minifigure of her partner, FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny).
After assembling the entire build, it suddenly floats up into the air and disappears, as if it’s abducted by aliens. “No one is going to believe this,” Scully states.
Lego confirms that The X-Files set will be available for Lego Insiders on Aug. 1 and to everyone else on Aug. 4.
ORIGINAL STORY: JULY 5, 2025, AT 2 P.M. PT
Fans of The X-Files went into a frenzy when Lego announced it would manufacture a new set based on Fox’s classic sci-fi drama.
Designed by Brent Waller, whose screen name is WetWired, the 2,020-piece build features a massive UFO abducting a grey alien while FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) stand by holding flashlights. Mulder’s office is located below the forest vignette, with familiar faces like Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis) surrounded by fun Easter eggs from the Emmy-winning show — more on those below.
Waller’s design won the fan vote in the recent “Build Your Nostalgia – ’90s Throwback” contest sponsored by Lego. Gold Derby reached out to the designer to hear all about the highly anticipated creation, the online support from Anderson and Duchovny, and when fans might expect to purchase the set.
Gold Derby: First things first, how big of an X-Files fan are you?
Brent Waller: I was a fanatic, or X-Phile, back in the day, though I did fall off a bit in the later seasons. I remember seeing the ad for it on TV when I was about 13. I stayed up late for the pilot and was hooked from the start. I was always big into the mythology episodes until they got too convoluted, but one of my favorites was Episode 23 from Season 3, “Wetwired,” where a device attached to TV transmissions causes people to become paranoid, delusional, hallucinate, and even turn to murder. Scully ends up being affected by the transmissions, which causes her to mistrust Mulder and his motivations. It showed some of the behind the scenes conspiracies and revealed the deep-seated fears and paranoia Scully was beginning to have after three years working with Mulder.
How did the concept originally come about to create a Lego set based on The X-Files?
Back around 2014, comedian Kumail Nanjiani had a podcast called The X-Files Files, where he reviewed and talked about each episode of the show. I was listening to that at the time and ended up rewatching the whole series again for the sake of it. Having just had some success with my pitch for Ghostbusters on Lego Ideas, which got turned into a set, I thought I’d try building Mulder’s office and a minifigure version of Mulder and Scully. At the time, Lego Ideas wasn’t accepting more mature themed IPs and licenses, so I ended up just taking some nice pics of my creation and posting it to my Flickr account.
What are some fun easter eggs hidden within your design?
There are so many! There’s some black oil, which was featured prominently in the mythology episodes, along with the stiletto knife that was used to dispatch alien bounty hunters. There are the little glowing bugs from the episode “Darkness Falls.” Eugene Tooms from “Squeeze” is hiding in an air vent. And there’s a copy of the Lone Gunman magazine. The UFO itself is from the episode “Deep Throat” where Mulder witnesses the ARV (Alien Reproduction Vehicle) on an Air Force base and then subsequently has his mind wiped by the government.
Are there any characters or details you wanted to include, but couldn’t?
I actually really wanted to include the Flukeman from the episode “The Host,” a radioactive humanoid tapeworm-type creature that lives in the sewer. I didn’t have a lot of time to design brand new minifigures, and the Flukeman would be quite complex to design. So, I ended up just throwing in a Bigfoot minifigure Lego already makes and calling it the Jersey devil from the episode of the same name. I’d love to change those minifigures around. As for things I couldn’t, I was cautious to include cigarettes or anything smoking related, despite the main villain being known for that. The Cigarette-Smoking Man or “Cancer Man” both aren’t particularly family-friendly names, so while I did feature his character as “The Syndicate Leader,” I didn’t include any cigarettes or his trademark pack of Morleys.
Tell us about the fan voting, and what was your reaction when your build won?
Fan voting is Lego’s way of ensuring there’s a market out there for the ideas that are submitted. Usually, the goal on Lego Ideas is to just get to 10,000 votes and then they will review it. In this case, it was a specific challenge based around ’90s nostalgia. I thought it was a good opportunity to dust off my old design for Mulder’s office, but this time add a little vignette on top of a forest alien encounter to flesh it out. I’d previously submitted Mulder’s office in 2019 to Ideas, as they were now accepting The X-Files and other more adult-oriented IPs. It did get to the required 10K votes, but unfortunately it wasn’t selected to go into production at the time.
My reaction when I found out was probably a bit anticlimactic. Lego informs fan designers ahead of the public announcements, but in my case this was the third time my designs were put into production — the previous two being Ghostbusters and Seinfeld. I got asked to jump on a Zoom call with Lego, with an excuse about it being related to fan engagement for a press interview or something. It was late one evening as that’s the best time to align my Australian time zone to Denmark, and I’d just spent the last three days moving to a new office at work, so I was exhausted. You’d think I’d be jumping up and down, but I was a bit subdued.
What is the timeline for when fans might be able to purchase the set?
That’s more a question for Lego. Now that it’s announced, the team over in Denmark will start developing my prototype into an official set. I’ll get to see it every now and again as it progresses and give feedback, but generally the process takes one to two years. Some projects are faster than others.
Tell us what you can about your Lego-related correspondences with Gillian Anderson through the years.
I’ve never heard from her directly. Ten years ago when I first put pictures of my original design on my Flickr account, she somehow saw it. One of her assistants reached out to me via email and asked if I could send Gillian some of the Mulder and Scully minifigures. As it happened, when I created The X-Files minifigures at the time, I used UV printing, which was something I’d not done before, so I got a backup set of Mulder and Scully made just in case. I offered to send her those spares under the condition that she send back a photo of herself holding her Lego self. She did even better, posting a picture to her Twitter account of herself and David on the set of Season 10, in costume, with the caption, “Time to start an X-Files Lego campaign?!”
Have you heard from David Duchovny, Chris Carter, or anyone else from the show?
After posting that pic, Gillian’s assistant emailed back and asked if I had spares to send to David as he wanted a set as well. I ended up doing another run but this time using Pad Printing, the same printing technique Lego uses, and her assistant passed them on to David. I’ve not heard anything from Chris. I did meet Dean Haglund, who played the long-haired Langly from Mulder’s conspiracy-obsessed friends at the Lone Gunmen, at a convention. I ended up sending him some Lego versions of the Lone Gunmen and Mulder and Scully.
What are some other notable Lego designs you’ve created/will create?
I created the original Lego Ideas Ghostbuster set which consisted of the Ecto-1 and the four main cast of the original movie, and then the Seinfeld set of Jerry’s apartment. I’ve done a lot of other designs and pitches, including Garfield, Mr. Bean, The Dark Crystal, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and the Batmobile Tumbler from The Dark Knight. Some of my original ideas are a full-sized bonsai, a working desktop calendar with seasonal vignettes, and a collaboration with another Lego enthusiast to create a working Solar System Orrery. Unfortunately, I have more ideas than time.
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All episodes of The X-Files are streaming now on Hulu. Click here for everything to know about the upcoming reboot from filmmaker Ryan Coogler.
