Chris Carter is back with a new TV series

Largely absent from the scene since The X-Files series and films he masterminded years ago, Chris Carter is returning with a science-fiction thriller, The After.

Arriving on the Amazon Prime website in early 2015, The After follows a group of strangers thrown together by a mysterious calamity that strikes Los Angeles and brings it to a panic-ridden halt.

During a panel discussion at this week’s summer TV critics’ tour in Hollywood, Carter said he resists the label of “post-apocalyptic” for what has befallen the city: “We are doing a show where something is happening and we’re playing it in real time.”

The idea for the series had gestated for more than 20 years, he said, sparked by an incident in the 1980s when a box of nails was dropped on an LA motorway.

“It brought the city to a standstill,” Carter recalled. Inspired by that, he began plotting his own, much more elaborate “box of nails”.

After The X-Files ended its nine-season Fox run in 2002 (with a follow-up film in 2008), Carter took a decade-long hiatus.

Then in his mid-40s, he was ready to do other things, he explained: “I surfed, I climbed mountains, I read a lot, I watched a lot. I got ready to come back to do what I’m doing now.”

He plans to do a lot of it. The first season of The After will be eight hours, but "I have a goal of 99 episodes for this. I'm serious. There are a number of influences here, but one is Dante's Inferno. There are 99 cantos, and I'm kind of using that as my model."