When the Xena: Warrior Princess reboot was first announced, NBC’s Bob Greenblatt was clear that he'd be keen to get original star Lucy Lawless involved in some capacity. The actress has since been discussing the project with CBR and has revealed that she would potentially be open to a return, provided the new show is faithful to the spirit of the original.
"Too early to say," says Lawless, when asked whether she would be up for a return, "because if they don't honour the original, you know the covenant with the fans, then I wouldn't touch it with a forty-foot flagpole. Too early to say. Their concern is that I would overshadow whoever was playing [the lead role], which may or may not be legit, but do I want to be used as some sort of warm prop for somebody else's show. What's in it for me?"
"And if it wasn't honouring the intention of the show - like it's full of T&A, that immediately breaks the covenant with fans - that is not part of female empowerment, that is not part of self-realisation, it's not part of, you know, good over base instincts or everything that the show was about then yeah, I would not want to have a part of it."
"I think that character, and the relationship of Xena and Gabrielle, it's not done, we still need everything that was about, so I totally support them in making it. But how that is realized is a much bigger question. I hope it's great. I hope that the fans have that again. The TV series aside, what I would love to do is a little bit like Ash Vs. Evil Dead where you get the original cast together - get Renee O'Connor, me, Bruce and Ted Raimi - and do a spoof, do a comedy one-off movie. That would be so fun." Amen to that…
