‘The X-Files’ Led to the Birth of Horror’s ‘Final Destination’ Franchise

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It’s widely agreed that The X-Files is a truly exceptional television show. Even though it originally finished airing 25 years ago (aside from a couple of later seasons), it remains popular and influential. The stories of Mulder and Scully had a significant impact on television, and you can still see its influence in shows like Stranger Things, Evil, and Supernatural.

As a huge fan of The X-Files, it was amazing to see how many talented writers contributed to the show. Chris Carter really drew in some big names! I knew Stephen King wrote an episode – “Chinga” in Season 5 – but I was surprised to learn William Gibson, the cyberpunk master, co-wrote two! And even more impressively, Vince Gilligan, who later created Breaking Bad, was a regular writer for The X-Files, working on a whopping 30 episodes, including some of my favorites like “Bad Blood” and “Pusher.” It just shows how special the show was.

While we love many episodes of The X-Files, far more ideas never actually got made. For instance, the episode “Bad Blood” started as an idea for a crossover with Unsolved Mysteries that creator Chris Carter couldn’t quite figure out, though it likely would have been great if he had. Most of these abandoned scripts were simply thrown away, but one of them unexpectedly became a hugely successful horror series: Final Destination.

How a Concerned Mother Led to ‘Final Destination’

The first Final Destination, created by Jeffrey Reddick, centers around a group of teenagers who narrowly escape a plane crash thanks to a premonition. After being removed from the flight, they soon realize they can’t outrun death, as each one is hunted down by a mysterious force fulfilling their original fate. Released in 2000, the film offered a unique concept inspired by a story Reddick once read about a worried mother.

He recalled being on a flight back to Kentucky when he read a story about a woman on vacation in Hawaii. Her mother had warned her not to fly the next day, saying she had a strong, unsettling feeling about it, he shared in a 2011 interview with Bloody Disgusting.

She changed her flight, and the original plane she was scheduled to be on ended up crashing. It made me wonder if that crash was somehow meant to happen to her – if she was supposed to be on that plane when it went down.

Reddick developed the initial concept into a complete first draft for Final Destination. However, before becoming the popular movie that launched a franchise, it actually started as a television script.

Jeffrey Reddick Wrote ‘Final Destination’ as an ‘X-Files’ Episode

While still in college, Reddick started as an intern at New Line Cinema, eager to launch his Hollywood career. He wrote the script for Final Destination hoping to get noticed – he originally envisioned it as an episode of the popular show The X-Files, thinking it might help him find an agent.

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I was so thrilled when he finally landed an agent soon after! But instead of sending his story to the team behind The X-Files, a friend at New Line Cinema suggested he develop it into a movie. He wrote a detailed outline, and they loved it enough to ask him to write the full screenplay. Later, Glen Morgan and James Wan – both fantastic writers and directors who’d worked on The X-Files – polished the script, and well, the rest is movie history! It’s amazing to think how it all unfolded.

The Final Destination series has grown to include six films—with a seventh currently in development—and has earned close to $1 billion worldwide. It’s now the sixth highest-grossing horror franchise ever, following series like Saw, It, Resident Evil, Alien, and The Conjuring Universe.

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2026-02-23 21:33