These days we can name a ton of same-sex couples that have graced our TV screens, including the recent phenomenon of Heated Rivalry. Back in the 1990s, LGBTQ+ representation in popular movies and TV was very thin. But, one series that was embraced by gay audiences was Xena: The Warrior Princess for the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle. There’s one way Universal Television said “no” to one thing about the opening titles that might feed into the romantic ambiguity.
Xena may have never officially been a TV show with a lesbian couple, but viewers were all in on the idea. And, now we know that the creators even played into the relationship between Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor’s characters. Xena and Gabrielle famously shared a kiss, co-parented Xena’s daughter and in the finale they decided they’d be together for eternity. But, there’s one line the studio wouldn’t let the TV show cross – they weren’t allowed to be featured side-by-side in the opening credits. Per creator Robert Tapert, when speaking to Entertainment Weekly:
That's like one of the few times that [studio execs] ever said, ‘You can't do that, we'll lose advertisers.’ It took a little time before we realized…. I mean, we were really not doing it for the audience. We were doing it to be naughty.
Xena: The Warrior Princess debuted on TV in the fall of 1995 and went on for six seasons until its finale aired in June 2001. During its run, producer R.J. Stewart recalled hearing about Xena nights becoming a popular event at gay bars around the country. But, Universal Television was apparently worried that showing the main characters next to each other was a bridge too far. As Tapert added:
When I think of it, it was such a different time that when we started Xena, the studio would not allow Xena and Gabrielle to even be in the same frame in the title sequence. They were that strict about not wanting to make any insinuation that there was more between them than just good buddies. It was never really meant to be about two gay women on the road together, that developed on its own.
Interestingly enough, the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle didn’t start as an intentionally queer storyline. When Xena was being developed, having Gabrielle as her sidekick was simply “the first person that came to mind”, per the creator. As the series started to become important to queer audiences, Stewart said they started to “ride the subtext whenever it [made] sense.”
While Stewart recalls that he used to say he’d leave their sexuality “up to the fans,” these days he thinks “they’re definitely gay now.” There was talk about Xena getting a TV reboot back in 2015, until it was officially cancelled in 2017. If NBC were to come back around to this idea, how cool would it be if Xena and Gabrielle were an item this time around?
This year marks the 25 year anniversary since the Xena finale, and it’s definitely great to look back at how far LGBTQ+ representation has come. Still, there’s not really an action series with two queer women leading on the 2026 TV schedule right now, and that’s a darn shame! Anyone else ready to start the Xena and Gabrielle reboot campaign?
