Chris Owens had previously portrayed the Cigarette Smoking Man in the episodes, "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" and "Demons", he had portrayed The Great Mutato in "The Post-Modern Prometheus" on the show before being cast as Spender. Owens had also landed a guest role on "The X-Files" spin-off "Millennium". Chris Carter and David Duchovny were so pleased with his portrayal of The Great Mutato that he was picked for the role, without making an audition. Most of the crew members reacted positively to the selection. When creating the character of Spender, Carter had no long term plans for Owens involvement, meaning that Spender's involvement wouldn't differ much from different previous recurring characters of the show. Michal Suchanek made a small cameo appearance in "The Red and the Black" as a young version of Spender.