RENEE O'CONNOR NEWS

7 September 2017


Rob Tapert Talks About The Xena Reboot - The World Needs A Superhero Like Xena


xenagab"The world needs a superhero like Xena as much now as it ever did," Rob Tapert said in a recent interview with Fairfax media (stuff.co.nz) on Xena's 22nd birthday.

Rob believes it's only a matter of time before the show gets back off the ground and it's something he will "never give up on".

"The time is probably always going to be right in bringing it back, but there's no point in doing it if it doesn't find a way to capture what worked in the original, but still give the audience something they feel is fresh and new.

"There have been a few attempts, and for various reasons they have hit a brick wall, but there's always going to be a market for it, there's always going to be a desire for it."

US-born Tapert, who is currently producing the immersive musical theatre production Pleasuredome with his wife, says the recent roadblocks have come down to changes he and the Xena team have not been willing to make.

"In the developmental process, one organisation said 'we really want to do this, we see it as our brand'...Then they said, 'now that we think about it, swords and sandals never really worked for us'."

But the hardest thing is trying to find the right tone for any future version of the show.

"The original show went from being able to have Xena and Gabrielle hating each other through to stupid comedy about nits and foot rot, so the scope of the canvas it was painted on was so huge, to now start again and figure out where on that spectrum is the right starting tone for a modern-day audience.

"There's a big difference between Game of Thrones and Rogue One and Wonder Woman and 300. It's a pretty wide spectrum, and Xena slots into all of those in its own way.

"Me personally, I like the dumb comedy stuff. But watch this space."

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