*CONTAINS SPOILER FOR SEASON FINALE*
Reuters News Wire
29 March 2001
Thursday March 29 3:08 AM ET Warrior Xena Hangs Up Sword, Fate Unknown
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Xena, the Warrior Princess, hangs up her sword for the last time on Friday as filming of the cult television show comes to an end, but actress Lucy Lawless is not saying whether her character will survive the final episode. Local media has speculated that Xena would die in the final episode but TV stations that visited the show's New Zealand set on Thursday came away without an answer. ``I can't say...you're going to have to watch,'' Lawless, clad in a signature leather bodice, told TV3.
``It's all a big mystery.'' The Xena series has been made in New Zealand for American production house Studios USA since 1995. It began as a low-budget fantasy drama but developed a cult following and has been shown in more than 100 countries while fan clubs have sprouted on the Internet. Lawless, 33, said she would be out of work after filming finished but she was not keen to sign up for another television series at the moment.
``It's pretty hard slog most of the time and the glamour quotient is below one percent,'' she told Television New Zealand. The Xena series was loosely based on ancient mythology, with the warrior princess triumphing over the forces of evil.