Why? Why do bad things happen to good people.
NBC announced last year that the reboot, pushed by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (show runner of The 100, so, y’know), was in the works, with Grillo-Marxuach telling fans that he planned to explore the chemistry between Xena and Gabrielle.
“There is no reason to bring back Xena if it is not there for the purpose of fully exploring a relationship that could only be shown subtextually [sic] in first-run syndication in the 1990’s,” he said at the time.
We can only speculate as the what went on behind closed doors, but Grillo-Marxuach has walked off the project after reported “insurmountable creative differences” with NBC, who subsequently decided to can the reboot altogether, saying that after seeing material from the project, it “didn’t warrant the reboot.”
But, look, we do love Javier for getting the project off the ground because it has opened up the possibility of somebody else jumping in and finishing it. Besides, Lucy Lawless wasn’t going to feature in this one, so there’s time to bribe our way to her and Renee.