Sept. 4 marks the 30th anniversary of a show about a mighty princess seeking redemption that changed TV forever.

Love, death, and lesbian subtext: An oral history of Xena: Warrior Princess

Sept. 4 marks the 30th anniversary of a show about a mighty princess seeking redemption that changed TV forever.

By Mekishana Pierre

Published on August 14, 2025 10:30AM EDT

Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'. Credit:

Universal TV/courtesy Everett

It took a princess forged in the heat of battle to change the landscape of TV in the 1990s.

Before there was Buffy Summers, Max Guevara, Sydney Bristow, or even the Bride, there was Xena, a warrior princess with a chip on her shoulder and the courage to change the world.

Starring relative newcomer Lucy Lawless as the titular warrior princess and Renee O'Connor as her spirited companion Gabrielle, *Xena: Warrior Princess* brought something to TV that had never been done seriously before — a female-led action series that boasted all the stunts, guts, and glory of its male-centered parent series, *Hercules: The Legendary Journeys*, but with an emotional depth that wasn't afraid to make relationships complicated or messy.

The weekly syndicated series premiered in September 1995, following Xena's journey over six seasons as she sought redemption for her past sins by using her chakram and unbeatable fighting skills to aid the defenseless in the name of the greater good. But Xena and Gabrielle did more than just save innocents, they helped to pave the way for female action heroes in television and film — becoming a pop cultural phenomenon, as well as feminist and lesbian icons in the process.

"I'm just gonna say it was an anomaly at that time to have a female-driven kick-ass show," co-creator Rob Tapert tells ** a few weeks before the series celebrates its 30th anniversary on Sept. 4. "With the success of [*Xena*], it opened the doors for everything that came after."

In celebration of the series' momentous milestone, EW assembled Tapert, his writing partner and the show's executive producer R.J. Stewart, Lawless, and more series stars for an oral history to reflect on the making of the syndicated icon and how, all these years later, it remains a phenomenon that continues to inspire.

A hero rises

Lucy Lawless on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

*The character of Xena was introduced as an antagonist in *Hercules: The Legendary Journeys*. She appeared in a three-episode arc that ultimately served as a backdoor pilot for the character's spinoff series.***

**ROBERT TAPERT (CREATOR/WRITER):** You know, I wish I could say it was a long-term great plan [to give Xena her own series], but it really wasn't. *Hercules* was five two-hour movies, then they ordered 13 episodes of *Hercules*, and there was a show it was paired with called *Vanishing Sun*, And while *Hercules* did really well, *Vanishing Sun* didn't do as well. So the executives at the studio at that time said, "We control those two hour blocks on all these stations across America. We need a better pairing than that."

And so when they saw the Xena character in *Hercules — *literally in a rough cut, the roughest of rough cuts — they said, "Yes, we should rip ourselves off before somebody else does." And so that really was the financial need at the studio. And I had a long desire to tell a female action story and could never really find out what that was until I had seen a bunch of Hong Kong movies that had a female villain kind of doing good things. Xena was kind of born out of that, and the universe lined up perfectly for it.

**R.J. STEWART (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER): **I was hired to write the pilot after Rob had sold the concept and gotten an order of 22 episodes on the air — words never heard anymore on planet Earth. I got the impression it was Lucy's brilliant performance as the character of Xena on *Hercules* that triggered the move. It was smart producers recognizing star potential.

**LUCY LAWLESS (XENA):** When it was first mooted, I just thought, "Oh, well, let me know when it's a real thing." And sure enough! The big moment was more when I got cast in *Hercules,* because lots of other actresses were up for the role, and because they didn't realize that *Hercules* was gonna be a hit, they all turned it down [because] it was pilot season. So I was just really the lucky local kid on the spot who the job fell to. And that was the life-changing moment.**

Lucy Lawless as Xena and Kevin Smith as Ares on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Universal Television/Courtesy Everett Collection

**TAPERT:** When we first came up with the idea of a three-episode arc for Xena, [the studio] asked us if we would consider casting somebody from one of their other shows. And we said, "Sure!" And then, unfortunately, we got a call from her agent, like literally, I'm gonna say two days before Christmas. And she was supposed to travel on New Year's Eve from America to New Zealand and [her agent was] saying, "Oh, she's sick, she's in London. I've got a doctor's note that she says she can't travel because it'll cause problems. And because her other show starts you won't be able to wrap her in time, so she's gonna have to pull out."

We went, "Oh my God, what are we gonna do?" So we scrambled because it was a terrible time between Christmas and New Year's to try and find somebody. We had just used Lucy in another *Hercules* episode, so I sent that to the studio and said, "What if we dye her hair from red to black?" And they went, "Okay." Lucy was off camping somewhere and the line producer down here at the time scrambled to try and find her. [They] found her and offered her the three-episode arc.

**LAWLESS: **A couple of days after I got the call — it was New Year's and I was away camping with my family — I was sitting in a chair in Auckland, New Zealand, having my hair dyed dark. And they talked about making me blonde or something, but Gabriela Sabatini was my model at the time because she was number one in the world at tennis. So I was like, "No, no, no, she should be bronzed and dark haired." Fortunately, they went for it 'cause [bleaching] my hair would've been a drag.

**TAPERT: **And even before that was done — we were probably shooting the second of those [episodes] — I called her to say there was a chance it would go to a series and and she didn't believe it.

**BRUCE CAMPBELL (AUTOLYCUS/DIRECTOR):** We referred to *Xena* as the Little Show, or the Girl Show, because *Hercules* was filmed in 35 millimeter and they started *Xena* off in 16 millimeter — they wanted to save money. Little did they know that *Xena* would eventually sort of eclipse and become really bigger than [*Hercules*], which is pretty funny to see from the origin. It was nice to sort of be there when it started.**

A gay love story is born

Lucy Lawless as Xena and Renee O'Connor as Gabrielle on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

*While Xena was a standout character on her own, it was her relationship with Gabrielle that established the series as a show unlike any other. They quickly became a dynamic duo that kicked ass and turned the standard on its head. But first, the show had to find the right person to play Xena's foil. Enter Renee O'Connor.*

**TAPERT:** So we had Renee in one of the two-hour *Hercules* movies. And when *Xena* was getting creatively formulated, she was the first person that came to mind as a sidekick. The studio liked other people, but there was a young, naive, girlish quality to Renee that I personally loved. And so we brought her in a bunch of times since there were a couple other people that the studio was leaning towards. But eventually, they let us, as producers, have our way. And by that time, I'm pretty certain R.J. Stewart was there, and he and I agreed wholeheartedly that [she] was Gabrielle.

**STEWART: **Rob was committed to Renee from the very beginning of the process. She certainly fit the character I had written. She projected warmth and enthusiasm and could handle both dramatic and light dialogue. She was innocently cute and at the same time sneaky sexy. We saw a lot of actresses, but our dedication to Renee as Gabrielle never wavered. She went on to bring dimensions to the character that none of us imagined. Simply put, she was the perfect Gabrielle. We were very lucky to get her.

**TAPERT:** I want to give R.J. Stewart a massive amount of credit for being the voice of Gabrielle, because I think he really brought her to life in his writing and rewriting.

**STEWART:** When trying to find a voice for Gabrielle, I decided to make her a want-to-be bard. When I wrote the line "I sing of Oedipus," I knew I had something. Rob loved it because we share a love of the great mythologist Robert Graves. He'd already explored a lot of mythology on *Hercules* and we were ready to take it to a whole new level.

A woman with a brutal past willing to use violence to gain redemption, traveling with a woman who is much more interested in peace and love is an inexhaustible source for conflicts and crises. That was obvious from the beginning. The way their bond became so deep and meaningful is something we worked on and developed throughout the series.

**LAWLESS:** I think life imitates art in a way where whatever's going on in the scene, you kind of make it real in your life. And [Renee] did a little bit of a "I'm a puppy and you're the big Xena." And I'd go, "Stop that stuff!" because I knew that I wasn't more experienced than her or more talented or anything. But I think it was just her experimenting with the role, really. Anyway, she quickly got over it, put it that way. So did Gabrielle.**** But it was always going to be those two. It was a new model for storytelling, you know, [because] we hadn't seen two female leads [on TV before] so that was never going to change. Even if we hated each other, that would've been the role that we would have to play. But we grew to really love and rely on one another. And to this day, she's like my sister.

*One of show's biggest staples was the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle. Many have cited the pair's dynamic as one of the reasons why the series was so popular. They became icons to the show's LGBTQ+ fans. The question of whether the characters were lovers was the subject of great debate, fueled by the romantic overtones in their onscreen interactions. *

**TAPERT: **That's like one of the few times that [studio excecs] ever said, "You can't do that, we'll lose advertisers." It took a little time before we realized…. I mean, we were really not doing it for the audience. We were doing it to be naughty. When I think of it, it was such a different time that when we started *Xena*, the studio would not allow Xena and Gabrielle to even be in the same frame in the title sequence. They were that strict about not wanting to make any insinuation that there was more between them than just good buddies. It was never really meant to be about two gay women on the road together, that developed on its own.

**ALEXANDRA TYDINGS (APHRODITE):** It's interesting to think back on the time that this show aired. It started before *Queer as Folk* or *Will and Grace*, there were no gay lead characters that I can think of. Ellen's show was cancelled. So it was a very different time, and a show like *Xena*, which embraced its queer audience with playful "lesbian subtext" was so unique. I loved it when I first heard out about this. I remember being young and coming out — we had very queer little media at all, let alone role models. If something like *Xena* had been on TV when I was in college, it would have been a weekly event for me and all my friends.

**STEWART: **We embraced the lesbian subtext with unbridled glee. Hearing that there were *Xena* nights in gay bars around the country cracked me up. That was perfect. Our general rule was ride the subtext whenever it makes sense. Everyone did that, so there was very little need to talk about it. Remember, we had a movie to make every week. Writers meetings were about breaking story and we did a hell of a job doing that, didn’t we?

In the olden days, when people asked me if Xena and Gabrielle were gay, I used to say, "I'll leave that up to the fans." But 30 years later, the fans have spoken. They're definitely gay now. **

Lucy Lawless as Xena and Renee O'Connor as Gabrielle on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Universal Television/Courtesy Everett

**TYDINGS:** This is part of the genius of the show. First of all, how many female-driven action shows have we had? Even today? And then a show where there are two women, with no male voice like Charlie on the speakerphone, giving them instructions. I'm pretty sure Lucy never once said a line like, "What do we do now?" And then, they so fully gave over to Xena and Gabrielle as a love story, even though at the time it was subtext and innuendo. However you looked at it, it was undeniable that these two women deeply loved one another.

**LAWLESS:** I think Renee and I didn't [anticipate the fan response] because we didn't have our heads in that head space, but certainly the writers knew exactly what they were doing from the start. We never thought about sexuality or anything, but we did think about love, and it's only about finding the love in the scene. When you don't know what else to do, look for the love in the scene. And that was, I guess, the magic ingredient.

It was never about sex or trying to sell the nature of the relationship or any of that. Just look for the love in the scene because all scenes are about love or trying to get love, trying to run to love. I think people who didn't wanna see it, didn't see it. It was subtextual. Like, Renee would go to Texas and she'd say something about the lesbian subtext and they'd go, "What lesbian subtext?" Like if it's not relevant to you, you won't see it. If it's relevant to you, it'll be there in spades. It's very clever.

A true cast of characters

Ted Raimi as Joxer on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

*While Xena and Gabrielle were the main duo, the show's colorful cast of characters fleshed out the world they sought to save. The roster of characters included powerful gods who frequently meddled in the affairs of mortals for their own entertainment and the villagers, warlords, and fighters who kept Xena and Gabrielle on their toes in every episode. Some, like Ted Raimi's Joxer the Mighty, became fan favorites. *

**TED RAIMI (JOXER):** R.J. came up to me after he created the character and explained it to me, and it's really a very brilliant premise for a character, especially a comedy one. He's the worst warrior in the world who thinks he's the best warrior in the world. And if you apply that to drama, you get a terrible tragedy, like, Shakespearean-level tragedy. Or, if you apply it to comedy, you do Joxer with it. So it really takes a writer who understands a character and isn't just inserting a goofy guy.

R.J. did me and the show quite a service by making it complex in that regard. If he had written something more in the line of a wacky Jim Carrey guy who's just goofy and gives a bit of goofiness all the time, it would've been funny for a minute and then it would've fallen quite flat. So it was so much of him that made that work.**

**STEWART: **When I go back and watch episodes I haven't seen in years, the performance that seems most underrated is Ted as Joxer. He delivered a first-rate comic performance every time we wrote for him. In creating the character, I wanted to make Joxer good comic relief. Ted is such a fun guy in real life it's no surprise that he was able to make Joxer so likable. But he took it much further. Ted and I used to talk about our shared love of Danny Kaye, and much of what he did on *Xena* is in Danny's tradition.

**RAIMI: **He's kind of a guy who thinks off the cuff, to say it politely. His heart is always sort of there. And I think that element that they had written in made that character perhaps more appealing to a lot of viewers, because if you were to take Joxer and look at everything that he has done, it amounts to very little. He's basically useless and sort of disgusting. But he does have good intentions, and I think the audience likes characters that have good intentions and that's why they find him appealing. Because Lord only knows it isn't for his actions or his actual desires.

*Alexandra Tydings' Aphrodite was iconic from her first moment on the show, when she made her dramatic entrance emerging from a clam shell.***

**TYDINGS: **What a way to make an entrance! It really set the tone for the character — whimsical, a bit silly, and very fun — and the writers stayed true to that for the duration. But I was just booked as a guest star for one episode. I had no idea what this would become! I love how the writers developed and deepened what could have otherwise been quite a shallow character. Aphrodite was an absolute joy to play.

And everyone was just game for so many things. Alternate realities, all of us playing fairytale characters, wildly crazy dream sequences, we just went for it. I mean, the costumes! Especially for me and Renee — mermaid tails, Valkyrie impersonations, it was all so fun. Over time, I started to see more complex and challenging storylines, and that really is my dream as an actor. It all made so much sense to me — love is complicated, it can be hard, it can be destructive, obsessive, disappointing, so it made sense to bring all of that to this character who was the personification of all these aspects of love.

Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

*For Bruce Campbell — who appeared on both *Hercules* and *Xena* as Autolycus, King of Thieves, and directed the former — it was another opportunity to play with his former *Evil Dead* buddies Tapert and Sam Raimi (who was an executive producer on the series).***

**CAMPBELL:** I didn't have to audition, fortunately. Rob knew what I could do 'cause he was my *Evil Dead* partner, so I had the inside track there. I don't know whose idea it was to cast me in the first place, but then once it happened, it was great. I'm one of the few characters that went between Hercules and Xena. I was one of the privileged characters because the dynamics were very different.

Hercules is a lot of male bonding. And with Xena, of course, Autolycus was always trying to get in Xena's pants. He was an unwilling participant in her journeys, and he was an unwilling aide. He always, ultimately, did help while trying to make a deal on the side, a little something else for him. Always, that's the M.O. But he would still do the right thing eventually and go through many humiliations to do it. I think Autolycus sort of grew on people like a wart.

Between the two shows, over six seasons, it was really fun to come back and forth to do that. We had days on *Xena* where I don't think we delivered an original line of dialogue that was written for the day because we had a lot of latitude. If something didn't work, we had the ability to put it all together. Rob trusted us.

Bruce Campbell as Autolycus on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Courtesy Everett Collection

**RAIMI:** I don't think that'll ever happen again on a network show, because writers can now be contacted 80,000 ways, including telephone, email, fax, text, you name it.

**CAMPBELL: **I was ruined because when I'd come back to the United States, you'd suggest something, and they'd go, "Oh, whoa, we gotta get that approved." I'm like, "Approved? What are you talking about? You have the power of the edit. You can cut anything out that we say!" So it was a good, ruinous time period.

**RAIMI: **I think that really opened up a lot of creativity that might not have otherwise been there. Also, not to disparage those scripts, they were great. And without those rock-solid storylines, we would've never been able to improv like we did. Improv only works if you have a great script to begin with, otherwise it just doesn't work at all. That was one of my favorite things, and in that sense, I felt like we were just a bunch of people on this island that were doing this crazy student film.

**TYDINGS: ***Xena* was a unique show in many ways, and one of them was the strength of female voices in both the cast and crew. Production is a collaboration, and the attitude of the people in power has such an influence. I think this filters down in so many ways that affect the creativity that people bring to work. Lucy and Renee, along with producers, writers, crew members — all of this set a tone that I haven't really seen on many other film sets.

Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

**CAMPBELL:** There wasn't a stiff in the bunch, and with Lucy and Renee, you could not have had a more ideal lead duo.

**TYDINGS: **In many ways, my early career set me up to become interested in intimacy coordination later. Quite a few of my early experiences involved me wearing tiny little outfits in romantic scenes with other actors — sometimes actual nudity and love scenes. So I know first hand that these scenes can be challenging, rewarding, and/or horrible experiences; it all has to do with how you are treated on set.

Aphrodite had her fair share of skimpy outfits and scenes where we pretended she was fully nude — riding on a horse like Lady Godiva comes to mind — and the kindness and dignity with which I was treated by the wardrobe department, the assistant directors, everyone on set, stands out as the kind of professionalism we are working to create industry wide. I think as actors, especially Gen X and older, we really want to be seen as cool, down for whatever, low maintenance.

When you have a crew that treats you with dignity and care, you begin to see that it's okay to ask questions, to clarify what is being asked of you, and to make requests that will help you do your best work — that this is actually the more professional way to approach a scene that might be difficult or complicated. The set, cast, and crew of *Xena* really modeled that for me.

Death becomes her

Hudson Leick as Callisto and Lucy Lawless as Xena on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Courtesy Everett Collection

*What made *Xena* instantly stand out from *Hercules* was the darker, more intense storylines that allowed for a more complex cast of characters.*******STEWART: **Rob had done an outline by the time I was brought on to write the pilot, and in the outline he committed whole hog to Xena as a hero. The opening scene was Xena burying her weapons — I've always thought she was considering suicide at that point, although I never felt it was appropriate to bring up such a dark theme in a show that would appeal to young people. In my mind, if Xena hadn't heard the cries of people in distress, she would have ended it all right there. But when she hears those cries, she has an instant epiphany.

She suddenly understands the way she can redeem the horrible things she's done. She decides to dedicate her life and actions to helping those threatened by the same kind of ruthless violence she herself once perpetrated. So the redemption theme was there from the beginning. Breaking the cycle of violence is a subject I've explored in much of my writing. On *Xena*, we had the perfect situation to go deeply into it.

**TAPERT:** We knew when we started *Xena* that we wanted to be transgressive. Transgressive in 1995 was we gave Xena a series of men of color as lovers in the first five episodes — Draco (Jay Laga'aia), Marcus (Bobby Hosea), among other people... And so it just is a different era. We've come somewhere in 30 years, although it seems painful right now. So when we started, we kept pushing the boundaries.

**CAMPBELL:** Xena was the more serious [of the two characters]. Hercules got serious because he would give little Billy his medicine. He always had to do the right thing. Xena was more conflicted. It involved more sensuality. Sexual Herc was more, you know, "I'll kiss her on the lips and ride away into the sunset" — a little more like a Western. Whereas on *Xena*, they went dark. Of course, at the end they went dark, dark. It went *crazy* dark.

**RAIMI: **I loved it! That was great. Xena dies in the end. It's great. It's perfect.**

**LAWLESS: **I always regretted the ending. It seemed kind of amusing to us at the time. You know, in a sort of Tarantino-esque way, like, "Oh yeah, that's crazy. Cut her head off." But what it did to the fans was just awful. So I keep going, "It never happened, never happened…"**

**STEWART:** We considered lots of endings, but what was so perfect about what we did is how true it was to the concept of the show. In an episode called "Forgiven," I present Xena with a way she can participate in a ceremony that will mean she is forgiven. But she won't participate because she knows what she did in her earlier life can't be wiped clean by a ceremony. She knows she just has to keep trying to redeem herself by her selfless, sacrificial acts. And in that last episode, she makes the greatest sacrifice one can make. In my vision, she had redeemed herself at last.

**TAPERT:** It happened after a huge amount of discussion between R.J. and myself. And it really came down to — besides being a little naughty, which we were — we thought that Xena dying to right the wrongs and do something to atone for her past had been the journey she had been on from the beginning of the series. And the fact that the fans had this massive reaction against Gabrielle being alone, that caught us a little bit off guard because, of course, that's life. Your parents die or your friend dies, or whoever dies. That's part of life.

**STEWART: **Fans frequently don't like the way writers end their favorite shows — *Seinfeld*, *The Sopranos*, and *Game of Thrones* all had controversial endings. If I thought that the ending was so hated that hardcore *Xena* fans would abandon the show, I'd regret it. But I know that's not the case because I've been to *Xena* conventions. They're still with us, God bless them.

**TAPERT:** We have all these stories about Xena being bad before she met Gabrielle and her being on a road to redemption and we thought that this was her chance to finally right everything she had done wrong. If we could go back in time and fix that, I wouldn't have told that story. It's impossible to say now what we would do if we knew then what we knew now. But it was very much a logical [decision] and finales are tricky.

*Despite having such a definitive ending, the hope for a revival or sequel remains strong in the Xenite fandom, and plans are underway.*******LAWLESS:** Gotta tell you, I don't know why they haven't been able to do it. What I keep hearing is you have to do it as well or better than the original, and they keep feeling like it's not as good or better or totally different. It might need to be just totally different.

**CAMPBELL: **The themes are very relevant to today. Loyalty, friendship, complicated relationships. *Xena* said it's okay to have complicated relationships in an otherwise action-centered show.

**TAPERT:** It was an anomaly at that time to have a female-driven kick-ass show. And so, with the success of *Xena*, it opened the doors for everything that came after. We are trying to launch a new version of *Xena*. It would not be the story of Xena and Gabrielle with Lucy and Renee. It would be like they did with *Star Trek*, a reimagining of that universe. Whatever it's gonna be, it will be different, which is exciting. Thirty years later, it has to be different.****

Lucy Lawless as Xena on 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.

Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

**RAIMI: **You'd have to completely rethink it. Because while I'm sure plenty of fans would love to see it just as the way it was, you have *Flash Gordon,* okay? And then from *Flash Gordon* you have *Robinson Crusoe on Mars*, then the book *Dune* by Frank Harbert, which is what *Robinson* and *Flash* is about. Then you have *Star Wars*, and that's the same plot. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying this is a recycled idea, originating a long time ago, and here we still are, 125 years later, reusing it.

*Xena* is quite similar in that regard. It wasn't the very first female-led series to ever do it, but it was the first one to take it seriously. But since then, there have been three dozen other shows that have also done the same sort of format and plot. So if you were to bring *Xena* back now, it would just look tired. And so to do it well, in my opinion, you'd have to do it brilliantly like what *the Karate Kid* did with *Cobra Kai. *Which is, they're just older and it's a whole new bunch of problems they have. Because there's no way that anyone would wanna see me at my age jumping around and doing those goofy faces. If you redid it in that way, I think that it could be done.

**TAPERT:** The weird thing is, I was always a reluctant participant of reboots. Because I've done 134 episodes or whatever it is, I don't feel like there's a fresh series of stories that I haven't told yet. That could be my lack of imagination, but I didn't want to recast Lucy and Renee. But for a feature, now 30 years on, I'm interested in doing that. I don't know when and where it is, but they're gonna see a script somewhere in the next three to six months, and one can only hope.

**LAWLESS:** See, I don't even need to be part of it. Just make it, dammit. **

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