Not even a couple of years ago, there were stories of a Xena: Warrior Princess reboot for NBC floating around. While that project ultimately didn’t go though, it was more than just a rumor, as it is something that was indeed pitched at one point. Former Lost writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach was assigned to write the script for the new pilot episode back in 2016. Xena 2.0 would have featured an entirely new cast and would have been a new interpretation of the mythology introduced in the original ’90s series.We may not have gotten the series proper, but in the entertainment business, just about everything leaks eventually, and now the script for the Xena reboot has found its way online. It’s available for fans to read (with Grillo-Marxuach’s blessing), thanks to the Facebook fan group Xena Movie Campaign.
As one would imagine for a pilot script, this rebooted origin tale plays out in somewhat similar fashion to what fans already know, but there is one big difference: in this version, Hercules isn’t a hero, but a villain. This is similar to the 1980s reboot of Wonder Woman from DC Comics, in which George Perez turned Hercules into the villain of the Amazon’s history, despite his demigodhood.
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