TCA: Gillian Anderson of ‘The X-Files’ trades in FBI gear in ‘Crisis’

“The X-Files” star Gillian Anderson is returning to American series television more than a decade after the groundbreaking science-fiction horror drama ended. But she is Agent Dana Scully no more.

The actress who has spent the last several years appearing in film and TV projects in American and abroad is starring in NBC’s “Crisis,” an upcoming thriller scheduled for midseason.

She will play Meg Fitch, the head of a powerful IT company, whose child is kidnapped along with several other children of highly ranked and important parents in an elaborate scheme.

PHOTOS: Winter TCA Press Tour

Anderson’s character will still have FBI connections. She is the estanged sister of FBI agent Susie Dunn (Rachael Taylor), a key investigator in the kidnapping.

Because of her role on “The X-Files,” Anderson said it’s sometimes surreal in her new role. “Everyone else is wearing an FBI jacket, and I’m not,” she quipped in a session during the Television Critics Assn. press tour.

Anderson has lived in London for the past seveal years. Her last regular series was last year’s “The Call,” a crime drama set in Northern Ireland that was broadcast on BBC Two.

She said she had been looking for a project “in this part of the world” and was intrigued by the pilot script: “I couldn’t put it down. I’m very excited about it.”

Ironically, she is diving in a TV series just as her “The X-Files” co-star, David Duchovny, is preparing to end his seven-year run on the Showtime comedy “Californication.”

ALSO:

Drake kicks off a new year, now point of view on “SNL”

WINTER TV PREVIEW: Full coverage of the season’s shows

TCA: ‘Peter Pan’ to fly at NBC as live musical event in December