Will Lucy Lawless be involved?
[dropcap size=small]B[/dropcap]ack in the 90’s, Lucy Lawless was one of the most famous faces in the fantasy genre on TV, as the tough, sassy warrior princess, Xena. The show was very dear to fans hearts, and alongside Hercules, it’s still very watchable to this day.
In August this year, NBC announced it would doing a reboot of the show, but we’ve had no word as to whether Lawless will be involved.
What we do know is that original executive series producers Sam Raini and Rob Tapert are in on the project, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach (who’s known for titles such as Lost and Charmed) will be a writer and exective producer for the reboot.
Marxuach recently spoke to CNET about the reboot project, and even though we still don’t have a lot to go on by way of cast or any big plot ideas, Marxuach did give an indication of the kind of direction they want to take the show in.
He begins by expressing his own love for the show when it was on TV:
I watched the original ‘Xena’ as well as ‘Hercules’ during their initial run…I am VERY excited, both to be working with the producers of the original, as well as to be working on material that spoke to me from a time in television history that I remember very fondly.
Having a fan involved on the project always gives us a bit of hope that the reboot will be respectful of the original, and indeed, what Marxuach’s went onto say reinforces this tenfold:
Let me give you an itty-bitty peek at the store by telling you a few words you won’t be hearing from me: Grim. Gritty. Dire. Depressing…What I want to do is to make something that is both fresh and new but that is also respectful and evocative of that feeling of fun and adventure that was so perfect in the original. I believe I heard it referred to somewhere as ‘the power, the passion, the danger.’
The quote he used ‘the power, the passion, the danger’ should get fans of the original series smiling. After all, who could forget that classic intro?
It’s great to see that they want to deliver a refreshing reboot that’s still mindful of the original so many loved. It’s always good to cater to both the old fans, and newcomers alike.
Xena and Gabrielle’s strong relationship in the original series was one of the main driving forces of the show, and gave it a lot of heart. Marxauch expressed his desire to get this back for the reboot:
These two characters were super-heroic women who appealed to me as a fan of sci-fi, fantasy and horror, as a fan of the sword-and-sandal genre, and as a fan of characters whose lives and struggles I found inspiring…There were a lot of action-adventure shows in first-run syndication in the mid-’90s, but the ones that endure are the ones whose characters truly spoke to the audience.
Even though it is hard to imagine a Xena without Lawless, there’s still a chance she could get involved – at least from everything Marxuach has said, it seems as though this reboot is in the right hands. It’ll be interesting to see just how this updated take on that witty, no-nonsense warrior princess and her adventures will turn out.
The Xena reboot is estimated to release sometime in 2016.
