The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
24 July 2019
Xena Reboot on the Cards?
LAWLESS HOPING FOR RETURN OF WARRIOR PRINCESS
Lucy Lawless remains hopeful a Xena: Warrior Princess reboot will eventually happen. A new version of the cult show was in the works a couple of years ago before being shelved by producers. “I don’t know why they’ve found it so hard to get it off the ground,” Lawless told Confidential. “They tried and kind of failed. They should have me and Renee (O’Connor, who played Gabrielle) back, those characters as the women the age we are and introduce the new Xena. It is a failure of imagination possibly, it is out of my hands but it could still happen.”
Most recently in 2017, America’s NBC Universal said a reboot was taken off the table after years of pressure from fans to bring back the franchise.
Xena: Warrior Princess was a huge global hit in the 1990s running into the early 2000s and is still broadcast in some countries today.
It first ran in 1995 and elevated Lawless to Hollywood star status. She is still recognised as Xena today.
“I am grateful for it and really respectful for it because every actress should be delighted to be recognised for anything they do,” she said. “So many actors are scrambling to get by and the fact that I am recognised in New York, or wherever I am … I am very grateful for it.”
Lawless, 51, makes her return to Australian television this week, starring in new Channel 10 drama My Life Is Murder that screens its second episode tonight at 8.30pm.
The actor plays former detective Alexa Crowe in the modern-day murder mystery that also stars Ebony Vagulans and Bernard Curry, as well as regular guests including Magda Szubanski, Nadine Garner, Ryan Corr, Danielle Cormack and Don Hany.
“It is a little bit more lighthearted,” Lawless said. “I feel like the world right now is so grim that it is quite nice to have somewhere you can go where there is a bit of justice and people doing what is right.
“It is a joyful, beautiful gem of a show.”
She admitted it has also been nice playing a character in a story set in the current day.
“I love modern clothing … I can’t tell you how horrifying it is to strap on a chest plate and corset, which many of my shows have had,” Lawless said.
“She is a modern woman, my age and she talks like me for the most part.”
Find out more about Lucy's role on My Life is Murder by going to the AUSXIP My Life is Murder subsite