Fans start campaign to bring Lucy Lawless back as Xena: Warrior Princess
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Fans are campaigning on social media to bring back Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor in NBC’s Xena: Warrior Princess reboot.
Last year it was announced that NBC were working on a reboot of the 1995 cult TV series. And it was even confirmed that Lucy Lawless’ character Xena will be openly gay, as executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach told Tumblr Q&A that the reboot will “fully explore a relationship that could only be shown subtextually in first-run syndication”.
Xena (Lawless) and Gabrielle (O’Connor) have always been close.
Since news of the reboot, fans have made it clear that they’d like to see Lawless and O’Connor reprise their roles. And with casting announcements soon to be made, the campaign to bring them back has intensified with fans flocking in on twitter:
https://twitter.com/AxzanaDamian/status/742086164807573504
@NBCUniversal We want Lucy Lawless in the role of Xena Warrior Princess! #XenaRevival #Xena @UniversalTV @nbc pic.twitter.com/oTx7lTYqB8
— Ines (@ines2464) June 14, 2016
No day will pass without Xenites fighting for #XenaRevival with @RealLucyLawless. Only Lucy is Xena. Please @nbc! pic.twitter.com/hXxDg7vMR1
— DLsquared (@dlsquared2) June 14, 2016
@NBCUniversal @UniversalTV @RealLucyLawless says she still can fight so what the issue #Xenarevival pic.twitter.com/EQHvVaoeuT
— Theresa (@ladylikets) June 14, 2016
A petition has even been formed on Change.org while a Facebook page also campaigning for their return, has almost 100,000 likes.
So it’s clear what the fans want and Lawless certainly seems in good shape to take on the role:
Lawless, now 48, in last year’s Salem.
A production and release date are yet to be announced for NBC’s Xena: Warrior Princess reboot, but it’s expected to take stride later this year and we’ll be sure to keep you updated, with or without Lawless returning.
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Appreciate the supportive words for female action icons such as Lucy and Renee. Yes, the fanbase worked 15 yrs after the show for Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor to return to their iconic roles, fix the worst “slap in the face” ending ever, and ride off. At this stage in their careers, they may not want a 6 year series, but they WANT to return to their roles for a limited engagment. Then someone should have the brilliance to write new characters in a new plotline to spinoff to. Some backroom gentlemen at NBC and a rewriter are afraid of Lucy’s shadow however. We are not interested in younger, recast “Mimic Meat” copying their looks and war cries wielding a Chakram nor in a rehashed, re-imaged, rewriten plot with a darker look and only emphasizing “oooo, they will kiss in public”. It is not what Xena was about and it is now what Xenites are about. We are about loyalty to the original cast and original show and the honor they showed ON and OFF the screen. Xena Revival with original cast then spinoff something original is the only way. To support recasting is to insult women (saying while Arnie, Stallone, and Ford can retain their iconic parts in their 60’s and 70’s that Lucy is “too old” in her late 40’s) and to support a rewrite slams the simple brilliance of the original writers.
As a fan, Xena was such a huge part of my adolescence and there was no hero that could compare to Xena when I was young, or even now… I went to a convention once and you meet the people that have amazing stories about how Xena touched their lives and the show inspired them to do amazing and impossible things! A new show with random people is almost like replacing family members or something. Hard to explain! The fans are so close to these characters and simply replacing them should be in the no fly zone! Hopefully we can see Lucy and Renee for one last hoorah!
The original show has such powerful messages about love, empowerment, equality, compassion. A revival would be the respectful way to move forward. The XWP means so much to so many–trying to replace it with something newer just feels so wrong. This is a slap in the face to the original cast, writers, crew, fans. Javier wrote for Lost and for the 100. Neither of those shows could ever come close to XWP. #xenarevival NBC is wrong to do this.
I can think of no better time for strong female heroes! I don’t think that the powers that be truly appreciate what Lucy and Renee brought to XWP. They played their characters to perfection. Everyone that watched Xena could relate to or want to be like either character. It was more that that though. If you really were a fan you could tell this was a group of actors who had great chemistry. Whenever you had any combination of Lucy, Renee, Ted, and Bruce it always looked like one was about to lose it. You could tell they were having fun and that they worked well together. They remind me of Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and Vicki Lawrence. There is just something magical about them together, it’s special! Sure you can make a show and call it Xena. I just think that not to take advantage of such an opportunity to make something that can truly inspire and encourage television viewers all around the world is a poor business decision. Javier has said its a special 13 episodes only series. Surely you can find a way to make it work with Lucy and Renee. Xena and Gabrielle never gave up on anybody nor will we give up on them. Please make the right decision, only Lucy and Renee as Xena and Gabrielle.
Thank You
if you try it with others, this series will not be liked. Please don’t sweat in vain. That synergy is just located in the Renee and lucy . others is unthinkable. we grew up with them. Regardless of her age do you want someone to be your mother? . they are like a part of our family. please think again. because there are thousands of us who think like this.
To recast would be a huge mistake!! Lucy and Renee had this unbeatable chemistry and worked so well off each other. They each embodied these characters and breathed life into them. To think that these characters can be replaced with new actors and be the same is poor judgement and shows a lack of knowing Xena’s fanbase, in my opinion.
We want Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor as Xena and Gabrielle! We want the original cast! They are the reason we have remained so loyal over all these years. Because they gave their all to us portraying Xena and Gabrielle in these stories and through that brought us Xenites together to form such a beautiful community. That’s why they deserve to comeback to reprise their roles!
Que sigan Lucy como xena y Gabriel asen muy vien equipo que regresen alas grabaciones las extrañamos
Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor are like a family to all of us. we need them to return in their original roles as Xena and Gabrielle. we do not need new actresses at all.
We have been waiting 14 years for a Xena movie with Lucy and Renee and I think a lot of us are pissed off that nbc is ignoring all the fans and headed straight to a reboot. If they gave us the movie first we would be more accepting of the reboot
I am a big fan of Xena and Hercules.I would like to see it come back and also Hercules .The show was the best that I ever saw on television, the sense of humor, drama.,action,the characters and the nature of the show that took place years ago, had a great positive impact on today’s society .We would love to see it back on television.Respectfuly Florence Pena. #1 Xena and Hercules Fan.
Understandably, Lucy Lawless is not interested in reprising her iconic role as Xena: Warrior Princess on an ongoing / long term basis. BUT, that doesn’t mean that NBC couldn’t have offered hardcore, nutball Xenites a compromise by either green lighting a separate Xena “revival” miniseries (or TV movie) OR by asking the show runner to develop a pilot script in which Lawless returns as Xena for one last grand adventure with Gabrielle before passing the chakram to the new, recast version of Xena thanks to the story-telling magic of time travel, parallel dimensions or alternate realities.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a future, epic cross-over episode where the new, recast Xena and Gabrielle somehow end up in the alternate reality of the original series (in which Xena has obviously return from the dead (again)).
IMHO, people should stop whining about reboots replacing certain actors and actresses. Since NBC’s Xena is a reboot, it is expected that Lucy Lawless will not be back in the main role. She is possibly too old for the role anyway. Same with Renee O’ Connor. I know you guys like these two, but we need to look towards the future, not stay in the past and make this kind of thing into a stupid issue.