Fantasy is a genre that’s constantly finding new life on television. From Game of Thronesand its various spin-offs to the chaotically charming Legend of Vox Machina, there’s a fantasy show for every generation. For those who grew up in the ’90s, that show was Xena: Warrior Princess. Spinning out of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena followed Lucy Lawless‘ titular warrior princess as she sought to atone for the sins of her past. Ironically, Xena would wind up outstripping Hercules in popularity and remains an iconic series to this day. While most fans have been clamoring for a reboot, Lucy Lawless has taken to social media to explain why it hasn’t happened…and what she’d like to do with the character.
On her Instagram account, Lawless discussed the potential Xena reboot that was in development from 2015-2016 under Javier Grillo-Marxuach (The 100, Lost). NBC eventually canceled the project, but Lawless said that she had a different project in mind: a movie that explored Xena’s youth.
“In my opinion, it would have been far more interesting to make a full-length feature film exploring Xena’s past. I would have loved to see her childhood, her birth, her family, her life in Amphipolis, her first hardships, the loss of her brother, and the events that gradually shaped her character and ultimately led her down the dark path of becoming a ruthless warrior.”
While Lawless didn’t confirm that a new Xena: Warrior Princess project was in the works, her idea of a prequel movie centered on a young Xena would be the perfect way to expand upon the series. Not only could it further expand upon the lore of Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, but it could build out elements of Xena’s character that were only hinted at in the original series.
A ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ Prequel Could Finally Explore Xena’s Turn to Darkness
Xena (Lucy Lawless) brandishes a sword in Xena: Warrior Princess.Image via Renaissance Pictures/Universal Television
Xena’s past life was only touched upon in certain episodes, but it’s a past that’s fraught with tragedy. She lost her younger brother during an attack by the warlord Cortese, which drove a wedge between her and her mother. During her time as a pirate, she starts an affair with Julius Caesar — yes, that Julius Caesar — only for him to betray and crucify her. Finally, after being rescued by an Egyptian slave girl named M’Lila, Xena watches her take an arrow to the chest and fully embraces her darker nature. Though Hercules will eventually convince her to turn to the side of good, it’s not hard to see why Xena embraced a life of violence.
A Xena prequel could build upon these moments and showcase more of who Xena was before she was a warlord and eventual adventurer. How did she learn to fight? What was her relationship with her mother and brothers like before Cortese’s attack? How did she wind up being a pirate? Unlike most prequels that spend their time answering questions that didn’t need to be answered, a Xena movie would actually expand upon the parts of Xena’s past that were only briefly hinted at in her series. It would also remind fans of how much she’s grown as a character, evolving from a ruthless warlord into someone who protects others.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Making a ‘Xena’ Prequel Could Avoid Tarnishing the Original Series
Another benefit of a Xena prequel is that it would avoid the trap that most television reboots fall into; namely, failing to capture the spirit of the original series. In Xena‘s case, it would be pretty hard to continue the series as Xena sacrificed her life to stop a demonic force in the Xena: Warrior Princess series finale, “A Friend in Need.” Her longtime companion, Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor), takes up Xena’s weapons and her mission to protect the innocent, making it the perfect conclusion to Xena’s journey. A reboot would only be treading well-worn ground, while a prequel could add more depth to Xena as a character without sacrificing the poignant ending of the original series.
Xena: Warrior Princess worked because it was a series that showcased the long, rocky road that is redemption. If anyone ever wants to revisit the series, they should take Lucy Lawless up on her idea and make a prequel movie that touches on those same themes.
Release Date
1995 – 2001-00-00
Network
Syndication
Directors
Garth Maxwell, Rick Jacobson, Mark Beesley, Josh Becker, Charles Siebert, T.J. Scott, John Fawcett, Michael Hurst, Michael Levine, Oley Sassone, Charlie Haskell, Doug Lefler, Gary Jones, John Laing, Bruce Campbell, Jace Alexander, John T. Kretchmer, Paul Lynch, Renee O’Connor, Stephen L. Posey, Chris Martin-Jones, Christopher Graves, Allison Liddi-Brown, Anson Williams
Writers
R.J. Stewart, Adam Armus, Nora Kay Foster, Emily Skopov, George Strayton, Hilary Bader, Terence Winter, Tom O’Neill, Carl Ellsworth, Chris Black, Peter Allan Fields, Jeff Vlaming, Alan Jay Glueckman, Eric Morris, Gene O’Neill, Gillian Horvath, Katherine Fugate, Linda McGibney, Melissa Blake, Noreen Tobin, Ashley Gable, Brenda Lilly, James Kahn
