The final scene in which Mulder and Scully speak in a hotel room is reminiscent of the series' pilot episode. Furthermore, in "The Truth," it is revealed to Mulder by The Smoking Man that the aliens plan to colonize the earth on December 22, 2012, an event that, according to the show, the Mayans predicted. This is a throw-back to the second season episode "Red Museum," which featured members of a new religious movement who believed that the year 2012 would bring about the dawning of the New Age. Before the release of the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Carter expressed an intent to make a third X-Files feature film that would focus on the impending alien invasion revealed in this episode, depending on the success of The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Following the release of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Carter, Spotnitz, Duchovny, and Anderson all expressed their interest in making one. However, on January 17, 2015, Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Gary Newman revealed that there was network interest in reviving The X-Files, not as a movie franchise, but as a limited run television event. Casting With this episode, Duchovny rejoined the main cast of The X-Files after his departure following the eighth season finale "Existence". The episode marks the only time that all five principal actors—Duchovny, Anderson, Patrick, Gish, and Pileggi—are credited together in the opening titles. Mulder, Scully, and the Smoking Man are the only characters to appear in both this episode and the series' pilot. This episode is the fourth of only four episodes in season nine where Duchovny appeared, the others being "Trust No 1", "Jump the Shark", and "William". Duchovny appeared in the first two via archival footage and only made a small cameo in the third. The episode marks the return of several characters who had either previously been killed off or had left the show, including X, who was killed in the season four opener "Herrenvolk"; Alex Krycek, who was shot and killed by Skinner in the eighth-season finale "Existence"; The Smoking Man, who was purportedly killed in "Requiem"; Gibson Praise, who was last seen in the eighth-season episode "Without"; The Lone Gunmen, who were killed off in the ninth-season episode "Jump the Shark"; Jeffrey Spender, who originally was killed off in the sixth season episode "One Son" but reappeared in the ninth-season episode "William";