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Star Lucy Lawless discusses why audiences haven’t seen or heard news of a reboot of the iconic 1990s series Xena: Warrior Princess.
Lucy Lawless, star of Xena: Warrior Princess, says the desire to revive the series is there in some form, but multiple efforts to make it happen over the past two decades have all hit the same roadblock.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Lawless said, “You know what? They have tried. They can’t find a way to write it better. That’s the truth. They have struggled and tried. Lots of people have tried, but they all get to the end and go, ‘This is not going to be — ‘ [If] it can’t be as good or better than the original, why would you do it? That appears to be the sticking point. But, who knows? There’s going to come along a fresh talent who is going to strike the right way to do it.”
Xena was a traveling warrior in a fantasy version of ancient Greece and the old world, seeking redemption for her past as a villain by being a champion for the helpless and innocent. She first appeared on Hercules: The Legendary Journey, which aired in first-run syndication from 1995 to 1999.
Initially, Xena was slated to die at the the end of a three-episode story arc, but proved popular enough that producers created a spinoff that ran from 1995 to 2001, anchoring its own franchise of animated movies, comic books, video games, RPGs and fantasy novels. In the series finale, Xena died in battle while fighting to free 40,000 souls held captive by the villain Yodoshi. Although Xena had died and been resurrected more than once over the course of the series, this time Gabrielle honored Xena’s desire to ensure the safety of the 40,000 souls by not bringing her back. The conclusion indicated Gabrielle would carry on in Xena’s stead.
Since then, there have been different attempts to revisit the property. In 2003, just two years after the end of the series, Lawless tweeted that there was interest in a revival, “But there’s a lot of red tape around #XWP so don’t get your knickers in a twist.” Also that year, Katherine Fugate was attached as scriptwriter for a theatrical film, but it never came to pass.
NBC began developing a reboot in 2015, with Lost producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach serving as executive producer with Xena co-creators Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. This version would have played up the romantic attraction between Xena and her traveling companion and sidekick Gabrielle, played by Renee O’Connor, which was mostly presented in the original series as subtext. Lawless said this version was being developed without her participation. NBC ended the project two years later.
Source: ScreenRant
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