50 Fun Facts About Xena: Warrior Princess

In which country was Xena: Warrior Princess filmed?

Many scenes were shot in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park outside Auckland.

Which actress played Xena?

She was a relative unknown, and a former Mrs New Zealand, when she got the role.

Xena was a spin-off of which series?

She appeared in three episodes as a recurring character and was originally scheduled to die in the third.

Who played Gabrielle, Xena's companion?

She had impressed the producers playing Deianeira in the TV movie Hercules and the Lost Kingdom.

Which producer created the series in 1995 under his Renaissance Pictures banner?

He produced The Evil Dead with Sam Raimi and later married his star, Lucy Lawless.

Which British actress was first choice for Xena before illness stopped her travelling?

Four more actresses were offered the role before it reached Lawless.

Why did the originally cast Gabrielle, Sunny Doench, give up the part?

O'Connor, who had already appeared in Hercules in another role, took over.

What is Xena's trademark throwing weapon?

She also carries a sword, and in the 1999 PlayStation game the thrown weapon becomes a first-person guided missile.

In which ancient Greek city was Xena born?

In 2012 Lawless called it "ancient Bulgaria, Thrace"; the city was then Thracian, settled by Greeks.

Gabrielle came from which village?

Fans call her the Battling Bard of Potidaea; the series premiere, "Sins of the Past", is set there.

Who played Joxer, the show's comic relief, from the second season?

He styled himself first "Joxer the Magnificent" and later "Joxer the Mighty", despite no fighting skill at all.

Which Timaru-raised actor played Ares, god of war?

He had hoped to play rugby for the All Blacks before a concussion pushed him toward the stage.

Who played Xena's nemesis Callisto?

She also played a body-switched Xena in the episode "Intimate Stranger".

What did Xena's army do to Callisto's home village of Cirra?

Her family died in the attack, and the trauma drove her obsession with revenge.

Which future Star Trek and Lord of the Rings actor played both Cupid and Caesar?

Marton Csokas, another future Rings cast member, played Borias and Krafstar.

Which Evil Dead star played Autolycus, King of Thieves?

He also played Xena herself in one of the show's body-swap episodes.

How is Aphrodite portrayed on the show?

She uses Valley slang and wears flowing, translucent pink gowns; Ares, by contrast, wears studded black leather.

Who composed the theme and incidental music?

He earned seven Emmy nominations for the show and won for the season five episode "Fallen Angel".

The theme music was developed from a traditional folk song from which country?

"Kaval sviri" was sung by the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir and can be heard in a Hercules episode.

What was the title of the season three musical episode?

A second musical, "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire", followed in season five; both got soundtrack albums.

Which fourth-season episode about Hinduism drew enough controversy to need a disclaimer?

Producers added a disclaimer at the start and an explanatory tag at the end.

What was Xena's son, given to the centaurs after his father's death, called?

His father Borias died in combat against a warrior in Xena's own employ; Solan never learned she was his mother.

What did Gabrielle name the daughter she bore to the dark god Dahak?

The child aged months in days and killed within hours of her birth.

In the season four finale "The Ides of March", what happens to Xena and Gabrielle?

Caesar is betrayed and killed by Brutus in the same episode, and a mystic named Eli later revives them.

How long do Xena and Gabrielle sleep after Ares buries them in an ice cave?

Xena's daughter Eve grows up in that time to become Livia, the Champion of Rome.

Under what name is Xena's daughter Eve raised by the Roman Octavius?

She became a ruthless persecutor of Eli's followers before her mother turned her back to repentance.

What power is Xena granted after Eve's baptism?

The Twilight of the Olympian gods followed, with Ares giving up his immortality to save Eve and Gabrielle.

What does Alti's trademark stare do to her target?

For Xena that meant feeling her legs being broken and her back snapped all over again.

What did the scripts call Japan, to avoid using a modern name?

China likewise became "Chin"; the writers simply dropped the last letter of a country's name.

What name did the Italian dub give Gabrielle?

The name Gabrielle itself is the French feminine form of Gabriel, the archangel.

Which weapons does Gabrielle adopt later in the series, after her Amazon staff?

She rises from Amazon Princess to Amazon Queen along the way.

Who mainly provided Gabrielle's singing voice in the musical episodes?

O'Connor did sing the rap lead in "Gettin' Ready" and the chorus of "War" in "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire".

In the Hercules episode "The Gauntlet", why does Xena's army turn on her?

She survived the gauntlet, the only person ever to do so, and then fought Hercules for his head.

Tapert based Xena on the "evil warrior princesses" played by which Hong Kong actress?

He cited Swordsman II and The Bride with White Hair as models.

From which ancient Greek word does the name Xena derive?

The studio had wanted the spin-off to be about Jason and the Argonauts instead.

What did Lawless break in 1996 while rehearsing a horse sketch for The Tonight Show?

Season two was reshuffled with body-swap episodes so she could appear only briefly while recovering.

Who taught the young Xena to use pressure points after Caesar had her crucified?

M'Lila died shielding her from a crossbow bolt, which pushed Xena fully to the dark side.

What is the name of Xena's palomino horse?

She died of old age during the 25-year sleep, but not before producing a daughter Joxer named Argo II.

Which Xena look-alike, who runs a brothel, eventually marries Joxer?

Lawless played several look-alikes, including Princess Diana and the Hestian priestess Leah.

Who kills Joxer while he tries to protect Gabrielle?

His son Virgil, an aspiring poet, witnesses the death.

Whose soul does Xena's daughter Eve carry?

A redeemed Callisto, by then an angel, engineered the conception after the crucifixion.

In which year did Xena: Warrior Princess premiere in syndication?

It ran until June 2001 and stayed in the syndicated top five for all six years.

Astronomer Michael E. Brown nicknamed which dwarf planet "Xena" before its official name?

Its moon was named Dysnomia, after the Greek goddess of lawlessness, as a nod to the actress.

Which network announced and then scrapped a Xena reboot between 2015 and 2017?

Writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach left over creative differences and the plan was declared dead in August 2017.

Where did the show's star donate her personal Xena costume in 2006?

She told Smithsonian magazine the boned corset made her feel like she was having panic attacks at first.

Which car maker ran an ad with the licence plate "XENA LVR" to court lesbian customers?

The show's treatment of the Xena–Gabrielle relationship is known to fans simply as "subtext".

What term did Xena fandom coin for fan fiction set in an alternate universe?

The show itself went "uber" in "The Xena Scrolls", with descendants meeting at a 1940 dig.

Which company published the Xena: Warrior Princess PlayStation game in 1999?

Saffire handled the Nintendo 64 game, The Talisman of Fate, the same year.

Which Starz series cast Lawless as Lucretia, wife of a gladiator-school owner?

It was produced by her Xena bosses Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert and won her a Saturn Award.

On which NBC sitcom did Lawless play Diane, who marries Ron Swanson?

The recurring role ran from 2012 to 2014.