VANCOUVER, BC (CinemaSpy) -- A few weeks back, JoBlo broke a story in which they posted some stills from the set of 20th Century Fox's X-Files 2 feature. The images appeared to show a werewolf head prosthetic of some kind, and the whole thing was treated as a possible spoiler concerning the plot of the film. Shortly after the story made its way around the Internet, a staffer over at Movieweb refuted the photos as bogus, making the following statement:

"Just got off the phone with an old Canuck film buddy of mine. While discussing the many projects he's been working on lately, I asked him about The X-Files, and more specifically, about those werewolf pictures that popped up on the net a couple of weeks ago. After chuckling a bit, he said that Chris Carter knows what he's doing, and that the werewolf did exactly what it was supposed to do — throw people off the X-Files scent. Translation? Those photos that appeared online were nothing more than a hoax by the production!"

If you've seen the recent footage for X-Files 2 that was shown at San Francisco's Wonder Con, then you know that the "bogus" claim may have been premature. Are we witnessing a clever disinformation campaign? Given X-Files 2's relatively short production schedule, do Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions really have time to stage complex deceptions?

A source close to CinemaSpy who worked on the series for the five years that it shot in Vancouver; knows Chris Carter quite well; and who has spoken to him recently at the studio, says no. This individual assures us that Carter has far more important things to do (like, say, directing the film) than concoct or engage in elaborate hoaxes.

More importantly, if the photos were a hoax, why did 20th Century Fox demand that JoBlo take them down?

Moreover, in a recent conversation with SCI FI Wire, neither Carter nor writer/producer Frank Spotnitz would confirm OR deny that those spy photos of the werewolf head from the set were intentionally bogus or not.

Bottom line? It's still quite possible the plot involves werewolves, whether directly or in some tangential capacity.

All of which leads us to the photo below, which CinemaSpy received over the weekend from a scooper calling himself (or herself) 'J'. The photo — which seems to be an FX house concept test (labeled 'Mulder Stage 1 Werewolf Concept') — would appear to show Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) in some sort of early werewolf transformation. We cannot vouch for the authenticity of this photo, nor for the credibility of the source (our email response requesting more contextual info was met with silence); for all we know, someone is duping us with a clever fake...but if it IS the real deal, it would seem to lend further credence to the werewolf rumors, or at the very least that the concept was under some sort of consideration at one point or another.

Meanwhile, we'll leave any further speculation to you until such time as we have more information.

UPDATE: We've just learned that the below pic is indeed a fake. The photo is a clever hatchet job from Californication; the original can be seen here. Despite the fact that this was clearly a prank, there remains no proof one way or another as to whether werewolves (in any form) appear in X-Files 2.