As an old (read: 90s) prophesy once said: “In a time of ancient gods, warriors and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess — her courage will change the world.” Now, Xena, Warrior Princess is back to change the world once more in a new rebooted series. What’s more, she will be openly gay. “Xena will be a very different show made for very different reasons,” Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the show’s executive producer, confirmed in a Tumblr Q&A. “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.”
Fans of the original show — which ran between 1995-2001 — will remember the latent sexual undercurrent that existed between Lucy Lawless’ character and Renee O’Connor’s Gabrielle. It didn’t matter how many ripped demi gods came between them, they were clearly in love. Even Lawless recognized this, telling Lesbian News in 2003 that Xena was “definitely gay”: “There was always a ‘Well, she might be or she might not be’ but when there was that drip of water passing between their lips in the very final scene, that cemented it for me.” NBC’s reboot is set to air later this year.