Pileggi himself thought he got the role because of Gillian Anderson's (who portrayed Dana Scully) pregnancy during the second season, saying the producers felt they needed to take the "show in a different direction" while she was pregnant. So Pileggi felt at the start that he "compensated" for the situation of the show, and after a while the character started to grow on the producers and fellow cast, as Pileggi puts it, "the character just started kind of clicking and working". At the end of the second season, the producers wanted Pileggi to return in future episodes, so he signed a six-year contract with them.