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  • Lucy Lawless Says “Xena” Reboot Is Just “Wishful Thinking”

    Lucy Lawless has played many roles onscreen, but one of her most well-known is that of Xena, Warrior Princess. Lately, a smattering of rumors online has fans worked up about the possibility of a reboot, but Lawless took to Twitter today to tell them to stand down.

    Lucy is currently busy filming the Evil Dead spinoff show Ash Vs. Evil Dead with Bruce Campbell, but she took time off filming to set the record straight saying that as much as she would love to go back to the character of Xena, nothing has been written yet and the idea is still just that: an idea.

    “Sorry, friends! news of a #Xena reboot is just a rumor. I’d love it to happen one day but it’s still in the wishful thinking stage,” Lawless wrote.

    Lawless recently told Den Of Geek that she would totally be down for a reboot, and had very specific ideas about where the character could go.

    “I’ve been pitching that, actually. The fans really do want that, and I’ve met some people who’ve crowdfunded some things, and I’m just like, ‘Why don’t we just do that?’ There’s a swell of interest still….Middle-aged Xena in a muumuu, with a bad attitude and a smoking habit,” Lawless said.

    Funnily enough, Xena was supposed to be killed three episodes in to the hit show Hercules, but she won over fans so quickly that producers gave the character her own spinoff show. It ran for six seasons and was a top-rated drama during that time. If a new show does get made, rumor has it that it’ll be a “modern” take on the original.

  • Lucy Lawless Brings Drag Queen Show to a Grinding Halt

    Lucy Lawless is busy these days shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, where she is filming the second season of the TV show Salem.

    Lucy Lawless told TV Guide that she has fun wherever she shoots because she gets to know the area by slipping into local courtrooms to hear what sort of issues everyday people are dealing with.

    “Most people have never been here but it’s a very surprising place, not what you would expect – a very complex society,” Lucy Lawless says of Shreveport. “They call this place the buckle of the Bible Belt, so you have a lot of convention and religiosity but you also have a lot of libertarians and free-thinking people and an arts community.”

    Lucy Lawless is from Auckland, New Zealand, so some of the issues of American society are a bit out of the norm for her. Even though she is seen as a feminist icon, that seems odd to her.

    “I’m not saying it’s a totally equal society, because I’m sure wage-wise it doesn’t play out like that, but I never grew up thinking I was not equal thanks to my parents and their encouragement. I didn’t even realize I was a feminist because I never really needed to be.”

    Another part of American society that claims Lucy Lawless as an icon is the gay community. While working in Shreveport, Lucy Lawless dropped in on a drag show. She had no intention of making a scene, but you can’t put Xena in a room full of drag queen and not have her be spotted, even in Shreveport. Lucy Lawless stopped the show.

    “I was dressed down. I was just sort of hiding but they picked me out (in the audience) and the drag queens would break from their act to come off stage and give me a hug. It’s amazing.”

  • Xena Body Armor: Military Takes a Cue from the Warrior Princess

    Xena body armor: They say that life often imitates art, but you generally don’t think that this would apply to syndicated television fantasies featuring warrior princesses. However, if drawing inspiration from television programs and motion pictures helps keep our troops safe and sound when they’re defending our freedom, then I’m all for it. And should these soldiers resemble something entirely badass in the process, well, that’s pretty cool, too.

    In an effort to provide better protection for the army’s legion of female soldiers, the masterminds working behind-the-scenes in the military’s research and design department have taken a page from the Lucy Lawless TV show “Xena: Warrior Princess”: The body armor worn by the show’s butt-kicking heroine will serve as inspiration for the armor worn by the military’s own female warriors. Currently, there are 11 different variations of male body armor available to these women, though the army is hoping to improve that selection in the near future.

    According to the Christian Science Monitor, the new armor will provide better protection for female soldiers by allowing “more curves in the chest and hips”. The problem was addressed in 2009, when female soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division complained about how some of the male-oriented gear was a tad uncomfortable.

    “It rubbed on the hips, and the vests were too long in the front, so that when you had female soldiers climbing stairs or climbing up a hill or a tree, or sitting for a long time in a vehicle, that would create pressure points that in some instances could impact blood flow and cause some discomfort,” says Lt. Col. Frank Lozano, who also helped co-design the body armor.

    “Some people would like to eventually make plates so it’s like ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ and conforms to the shape [of female soldiers],” explained Douglas Graham, a spokesman for the Army’s Office of Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment.

    Of course, in order to provide more protection in the right places, more plates will need to be added to the body armor, which, in turn, will make it heavier for soldiers to carry around. Eight different sizes are currently in development for female soldiers, which will feature narrower shoulders and “bra-shaped darting” in the chest.

    Lt. Col. Frank Lozano says testing has yielded some positive results for female soldiers, though the real challenge will be finding the money to mass produce them.