There’s a reason why The X-Files never continued beyond its 2016 revival. Long-term fans didn’t take well to the reboot of the ‘90s classic, but producers at Fox knew what they had. The X-Files in its prime was the rare left-of-field procedural, one that would go on to inspire everything from Supernatural and True Detective to Breaking Bad and Homeland. It would also make the studio exorbitantly rich, so Fox was prepared to greenlight the series for another season, ratings be damned. It was Chris Carter, the creator and longtime steward of The X-Files, who put his foot down.

“I needed some time off,” Carter tells Inverse. “I wanted to go surfing.”

Carter’s been a surfer much longer than he’s been in television. Apart from writing, Carter is also a multimedia artist, creating pottery, prints, and photo collages that stand almost in defiance to his legacy with The X-Files.

With or without Carter, The X-Files is too big a property to abandon outright. Fox is still keen to continue the series by any means necessary — but with Carter focusing on other projects, the studio has put its faith in a new director.

The fate of The X-Files now rests in the hands of Black Panther and Creed director Ryan Coogler. Carter isn’t involved in any capacity, but he’s content to cheer from the sidelines. “It’s interesting, people say, ‘Aren’t you possessive of it?’ And I say, ‘No, I’m looking forward to seeing what somebody else does with it,’” Carter says.

The pair had “a really nice conversation” when Coogler first pitched the reboot to Fox: “I just asked him what his ideas were, and he told me, and I said, ‘Those sound like good ideas.’”