Xena And Gabrielle Are Definitely Lesbians In NBC’s Reboot Of “Xena: Warrior Princess”
Back in December, it was confirmed that NBC had decided to dig up Xena: Warrior Princess from the mid-90s TV graveyard and reboot it for a new generation to enjoy. Yes, I used the word “enjoy“; Xena may have been low-budget garbage, but it was thoroughly enjoyable low-budget garbage. Part of the reason people watched Xena was for the maybe-gayelle (but clearly gayelle) relationship between Xena, the Nancy Kerrigan-looking one above, and her “companion” Gabrielle, the Tonya Harding-looking one.
However, there won’t be any not-so-subtle lesbian undertones this time around. During a Tumblr Q&A (via Vanity Fair) about the upcoming Xena reboot, writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach was asked if the decision to kill off a female LGTB character from The CW’s The 100 (which he was a writer and co-executive producer on) would have any effect on how he’ll handle Xena’s maybe-gay characters. According to Javier, there will be no question if Xena and Gabrielle are fucking.
“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.”
NBC’s Xena reboot won’t just be an excuse for some girl warrior-on-girl warrior action. This afternoon Javier Tweeted that his Xena will also be about “courage, redemption, ass-kicking, ancient Greece, scrolls, quarterstaffs, and the greater good.”
I’m really glad they’re not going to be vague this time around, because I was beyond clueless when I was a kid watching Xena: Warrior Princess. I literally couldn’t figure out what was going on between Xena and Gabrielle. Yes, even when something like this happened:
They could have spelled out the word LESBIANS in soap bubbles and I still wouldn’t have gotten it. So on behalf of all the other oblivious dummies out there, thank you, Javier.
Pic: NBC/Universal