Though she'll always be remembered first as The X-Files' brilliant and pragmatic Dana Scully, actress Gillian Anderson has shown off her numerous talents on plenty of other small screen projects, from The Fall to Hannibal to Bleak House. Her next role will be as a sex therapist on Netflix for the newly announced dramedy series Sex Education, which is also set to star Ender's Game lead Asa Butterfield. And no, this somehow isn't a spinoff of Naomi Watts' short-lived sexy therapist thriller Gypsy.
According to Netflix's announcement, Gillian Anderson will be playing a sex therapist who is uninhibited, which can be kind of a hand-in-hand description. But it won't just be her patients that she's helping, as her influence apparently trickles down to her socially awkward virgin son Otis Thompson, played by Asa Butterfield. With the help of a smart and morally flippant female classmate, he takes it upon himself to set up a sex clinic at his high school, which has to happen on the down-low, of course, since students can't get credits for independently (and non-professionally) operated sex clinics.There, a world of weird and wild problems and issues will be addressed and cringed at.
This will be the first big TV project for Gillian Anderson following the end of The X-Files Season 11, and it was already very clear that she wouldn't be returning for Season 12 of the fan-favorite sci-fi drama. (She had an excellent response to the claims that her lack of involvement is why Fox hasn't made any moves to order a new season.) She'd also made headlines by announcing she wouldn't be returning to Starz's American Gods following the exit of former showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green.
Considering how many British miniseries and films she's done over the years, TV fans should be pumped that Gillian Anderson is taking on a project with such a global viewership. And that the show will hopefully play to the actress' comedic strengths, as well as her dramatic ones.
Created by up and coming writer Laurie Nunn, Sex Education will be the first big TV role for Asa Butterfield, who is also known for recent films such as The Space Between Us and The House of Tomorrow. The show is being produced in the U.K. by Eleven Film, and will also star Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells and Kedar Williams-Stirling.
While no specific dates exist just yet for when we'll get to watch Sex Education, we know it's coming in 2019, so be...patient. In the meantime, our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule and our summer premiere schedule will clue you in on all the things heading to primetime soon.
