“A show like Xena could go to the weird places.” The showrunner of NBC’s Xena: Warrior Princess reboot recently discussed the new series in an interview posted on iO9.
The original show, which starred Lucy Lawless, ran from 1995 to 2001.
Showrunner Javier Grillo-Marxuach told Xena comic writer Genevieve Valentine that the new series will be much more serialized than the original show:
I’m really looking forward to remixing the canon a little bit. One big thing is that we are telling a much more serialized story than the show ever tackled—so formally we are already treading some very different ground—and while the characters will occupy roughly the same thematic spaces they did in the original, some of their backstories will be changed, and some of their morality will be tweaked so that we can tell a long-arcing story in which every episode leads directly into the next.”
He added that the new series will try to maintain the pulpy feel of the original while also ditching some of the more outdated elements:
Still, it’s interesting because the communications I get from the fans make it sound like we are going to throw everything out and make it into the Jem and the Holograms version of Xena. People have been asking me if it’s going to be set in the modern day (if that were the case, I wouldn’t have signed on or come near the thing) and whether or not Xena is going to have a Chakram (to which I always reply “Of course she’s gonna have a Chakram, what am I, a monster?”).
As you mentioned, a great deal of the appeal of the show lies in certain pulpy elements—like Gabrielle’s bare midriff, Xena’s leather miniskirt, Callisto’s amazing and gravity-defying… well, you get it—and it’s hard for me in the post-Brienne of Tarth era to reconcile with the idea that Xena and her friends can meet every challenge in such skimpy outfits. I think we are going to have some very lengthy discussions about how to bring those elements into the present day without missing the boat on what makes Xena exactly what she is; and how to have our cake and eat it too.”
And for fans thinking Lawless would revive her iconic role? Think again. The actress will not return as the warrior princess:
The obvious answer is that Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor are not going to be Xena and Gabrielle. That already has a lot of people in an uproar.”
What do you think? Did you watch the original Xena: Warrior Princess? Will you watch the reboot?
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