As you may have heard, NBC will soon have a new Xena — though that Xena seemingly has yet to be cast. (Lucy Lawless will not play her in the reboot.) However, NBC did announce the reboot of the 90s hit’s writer and executive producer back in December: Javier Grillo-Marxuach, of Lost and Medium. (Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are also exec producing.)
And recently, on Tumblr, the screenwriter addressed an aspect of the original Xena: Warrior Princess that’s likely been on the minds of anyone anticipating the reboot: Will Xena and Gabrielle exist as a couple beyond fraught glances and ambiguous lines? Since this is described as a “modern reboot” (modern like iPhones? or modern like social politics?) will they get to do the stuff to one another everyone always had to imagine them doing and go to the extent of what NBC will allow on network television?
Grillo-Marxuach’s answer to these questions came about, actually, due to a line of questioning about The 100, the CW series that he co-executive produced and wrote for. On that show, Lexa — a character who was involved in a relationship with another woman, Clarke — was recently shot dead, stirring anger among some LGBT fans. The question Grillo Marxuach replied to on his Tumblr was:
“Do you think the fan’s reaction to Lexa’s death will a) influence the writers or Jason’s decisions for the series as it continues and b) have effect on your writing for future projects like Xena?”
The writer’s response explicitly suggested that he has a specific, uncompromising idea of what he wants Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship to look like — and that he doesn���t want the romance to be only hinted:
i am a very different person with a very different world view than my employer on the 100 – and my work on the 100 was to use my skills to bring that vision to life. xena will be a very different show made for very different reasons. there is no reason to bring back xena if it is not there for the purpose of fully exploring a relationship that could only be shown subtextually in first-run syndication in the 1990s. it will also express my view of the world – which is only further informed by what is happening right now – and is not too difficult to know what that is if you do some digging.
In doing a little digging myself, I found these world views could mean a. really loving Mozart in the Jungle, b. really being sick of overcrowded Marvel universe movies, or c. disliking Trump (it would be glorious seeing Xena defeat Trump).
[Via Vanity Fair]