Reboot ... Actress Lucy Lawless probably won’t return in the new Xena television series

Their hopes are one step closer to being realised with NBC, the television network that produced and aired the original series, announcing they have just hired writer/producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach for the potential Xena reboot.

Grillo-Marxuach is currently a co-executive producer on SyFy’s series Helix, and has worked on Lost, Medium and Charmed.

There has been no word on potential casting, but former Xena actor Lucy Lawless has been vocal about wanting to star in any future projects.

In August, NBC’s Robert Greenblatt told The Hollywood Reporter that a Xena reboot was in the works but they were searching for a writer.

Lovers ... Gabrielle and Xena fell in love on Xena: Warrior PrincessSource:News Limited

He said NBC would love to have Lawless in a role — if her presence didn’t overshadow the new direction.

“I’m not sure how she could be part of it if she wasn’t playing Xena, and I don’t know if that’s a direction we’ll ever go,” he said.

Lawless told the Daily Beast that she definitely thinks they should absolutely remake it.

“The time for female empowerment and self-realisation and the triumph of our better instincts over base instincts is not done. Those are universal themes and it was massively successful all over the world and I think the world is still crying out for a hero,” she said.

“You can’t, for instance, make it about T & A [“tits and ass”] in Xena, that would be a deal-breaker I think for the fans. You can’t do what we did with Spartacus, with Xena. That breaks a basic covenant with the fans.”

The character of Xena originated on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in 1995, before getting her own spin off show a few months later.

Xena: Warrior Princess ran from 1995 to 2001, and remained in the top five syndicated drama series on American television for its entire rune.