This isn’t at ALL an alarming ask, so I’ve had to have a think.
There’s a need for resolve from the original ending, to please everyone and to reaffirm the importance of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. It’s the heart of the show, so start there. I would have liked to see a six-episode mini-series: set 15 years after Xena’s death, we see how Gabrielle fared, what her life is like, etc. I like the idea of her returning to the Amazons to rebuild the nation. Nero is the evil emperor this time around. SOMETHING HAPPENS and Xena returns and the first two of the six episodes are about this reunion, with a happy conclusion. Lucy and Renee returning, of course.
The following four episodes would reiterate the soulmate theme as we move through the centuries, basically creating ‘uber’ stories (like the Xena Scrolls episode). Visit them in the 19th century. The 1920s, maybe. Visit Janice and Mel again, in the 50s, this time. Each of these episodes though, has to have a tie-in theme that will set us up for the new series. The easiest thing I can think of is the chakram, how it disappears, reappears, etc. Lucy and Renee play all these versions as well.
The final episode is set in a post-apocalyptic future, roughly two hundred years before the start of the new series, but in the same timeline. This episode jump starts us into the new series, to take place in a society that isn’t the usual dystopian P-A, but a world that is rebuilding – so we have a ‘new’ Amazon nation, a ‘new’ Rome, etc – and a new Xena and Gabrielle. The ‘look’ doesn’t have to be some wildly sci-fi business, but a mix of what we have seen before.
So, there is it, my take. I’d like to read what others would have done.
I wonder if the ‘Amazons’ series that was set for The CW (and now scrapped) was part of any consideration about holding back on a new Xena series. Certainly, Wonder Woman and whether it would be a success or not must have been part of the conversation, but I hope that it now shows women-led productions are capable of making money and there is a strong interest in such programming.
I hope someone is looking at giving it another go.
Though, in the name of all that is good in this world (ahem), please don’t give it to the CW.
there’s honestly never been a tv show more tender and gay than xena warrior princess which is why it baffles me that more sapphic women aren’t talking abt it constantly
Well I know I do!
There was a beautiful time of people in their 20′s who remembered it airing but who were too young to watch it then discovering Xena on Netflix. That’s literally why I have a tumblr. Xena is THE BEST shit.
Agreed. The very best.
Still angry Universal/NBC did not thing to celebrate her 20th and have failed to bring a new series. I hope post-WW, we’ll see a change, hopefully before, but no later than, the 25th anniversary.
While it makes me sad and a little angry that they missed opportunity after opportunity and waited so long, I do think we will have one, eventually. It might not be for a while, though, as Wonder Woman is around the corner and Xena is just too closely associated.
I do hope that whoever gets to ring that bell, they start by giving closure to the original story/fandom by having Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor return – if just for a one-shot – before giving us a different version, a reincarnated Xena and Gabrielle in some other time period. For one, it would mean the original stays with LL and for another, it gives a new actor a chance for a new take that won’t interfere with or compete with what happened before.
I just wouldn’t count on anything anytime soon. The 25 anniversary? I can see that.
You are welcome. I’ve no idea if the new show is even happening or not at this point, it’s now been a little over a year since they announced a new showrunner and nothing has gone forward, far as I know. I would certainly watch if it came about and very likely would write about it.
I’ve a very hard time imagining anyone other than Lucy Lawless in the part and I can see casting a new Xena must be something of a nightmare. How do you match her physicality, humour, charisma? She owned it so completely.
I’d really hoped they would do a short series with Lawless and O’Connor, set 15 years after the finale, do something fun to bring her back then carefully transition into a new time period, reiterating their ‘soulmate’ status with a new Xena and Gabrielle, maybe in a post-dystopian future where a new ‘Rome’ and a new ‘Amazon nation’ arise. Similar themes and characters, but a new look. I thought this would help make the transition for the audience much easier, as well as honouring the fandom that has waited so long and kept her alive when there was no show.
It will be nice to see if JGM’s version ever comes to light and how it will be handled (happy to give it a chance), but I worry that the sand-in-yer-sandals-with-swords is a bit overdone by now.
The Doctor Is Out 