Xena: Warrior Princess

Xena: Warrior Princess is an American sword-and-sorcery television series filmed in New Zealand, which aired in first-run syndication from September 4, 1995, to June 18, 2001. Critics have praised the series for its strong female protagonist, and it has acquired a strong cult following, attention in fandom, parody, and academia, and has influenced the direction of other television series.

Writer-director-producer Robert Tapert created the series in 1995 under his production tag, Renaissance Pictures, with executive producers R. J. Stewart (who developed the series along with Tapert) and Sam Raimi. The series narrative follows Xena (played by Lucy Lawless), an infamous warrior looking to be redeemed for her past sins against the innocent by using her formidable fighting skills to aid those who are defenseless. Her companion Gabrielle (played by Renee O'Connor) grows from a simple farm girl into an Amazon warrior and Xena's comrade-in-arms during the series; her initial naïveté helps to balance Xena and assists her in recognizing and pursuing the greater good. In 2012, star Lawless asserted that her character, Xena, was from "ancient Bulgaria, Thrace", when the character is stated in the series to come from the ancient Greek city of Amphipolis, which is located in the nearby region of Central Macedonia in modern Greece. However, at the time, Amphipolis was, in fact, a Thracian city which was inhabited by Greeks, so it is likely that she was Thracian by birth, and Greek by culture.