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50 free Xena: Warrior Princess trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Xena was written to die in her third Hercules episode. Instead she got her own show, outrated her parent series, ran six seasons in syndication from 1995 to 2001 and became one of the great cult hits of the decade, filmed in the hills outside Auckland with a Bulgarian folk choir on the theme. This quiz covers the making of the show (who was cast first, why season two suddenly had so many body-swap episodes, which Evil Dead producer created it), the characters (Gabrielle's staff and sais, Joxer the Mighty, Callisto's burned village, Ares in studded leather), the mythology the writers bent to their purposes, and the afterlife of the series, from the NBC reboot that never happened to the dwarf planet nicknamed Xena. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works as a fan test, a 90s TV round or a nostalgia trip.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which country was Xena: Warrior Princess filmed?
New Zealand
Many scenes were shot in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park outside Auckland.
Q 02Which actress played Xena?
Lucy Lawless
She was a relative unknown, and a former Mrs New Zealand, when she got the role.
Q 03Xena was a spin-off of which series?
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
She appeared in three episodes as a recurring character and was originally scheduled to die in the third.
Q 04Who played Gabrielle, Xena's companion?
Renee O'Connor
She had impressed the producers playing Deianeira in the TV movie Hercules and the Lost Kingdom.
Q 05Which producer created the series in 1995 under his Renaissance Pictures banner?
Robert Tapert
He produced The Evil Dead with Sam Raimi and later married his star, Lucy Lawless.
Q 06Which British actress was first choice for Xena before illness stopped her travelling?
Vanessa Angel
Four more actresses were offered the role before it reached Lawless.
Q 07Why did the originally cast Gabrielle, Sunny Doench, give up the part?
She did not want to leave her boyfriend in the US
O'Connor, who had already appeared in Hercules in another role, took over.
Q 08What is Xena's trademark throwing weapon?
A chakram
She also carries a sword, and in the 1999 PlayStation game the thrown weapon becomes a first-person guided missile.
Q 09In which ancient Greek city was Xena born?
Amphipolis
In 2012 Lawless called it "ancient Bulgaria, Thrace"; the city was then Thracian, settled by Greeks.
Q 10Gabrielle came from which village?
Potidaea
Fans call her the Battling Bard of Potidaea; the series premiere, "Sins of the Past", is set there.
Q 11Who played Joxer, the show's comic relief, from the second season?
Ted Raimi
He styled himself first "Joxer the Magnificent" and later "Joxer the Mighty", despite no fighting skill at all.
Q 12Which Timaru-raised actor played Ares, god of war?
Kevin Smith
He had hoped to play rugby for the All Blacks before a concussion pushed him toward the stage.
Q 13Who played Xena's nemesis Callisto?
Hudson Leick
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?
Q 21Which fourth-season episode about Hinduism drew enough controversy to need a disclaimer?
The Way
Producers added a disclaimer at the start and an explanatory tag at the end.
Q 22What was Xena's son, given to the centaurs after his father's death, called?
Solan
His father Borias died in combat against a warrior in Xena's own employ; Solan never learned she was his mother.
Q 23What did Gabrielle name the daughter she bore to the dark god Dahak?
Hope
The child aged months in days and killed within hours of her birth.
Q 24In the season four finale "The Ides of March", what happens to Xena and Gabrielle?
Burned it nearly to the ground
Her family died in the attack, and the trauma drove her obsession with revenge.
Q 15Which future Star Trek and Lord of the Rings actor played both Cupid and Caesar?
Karl Urban
Marton Csokas, another future Rings cast member, played Borias and Krafstar.
Q 16Which Evil Dead star played Autolycus, King of Thieves?
Bruce Campbell
He also played Xena herself in one of the show's body-swap episodes.
Q 17How is Aphrodite portrayed on the show?
As a California Valley girl
She uses Valley slang and wears flowing, translucent pink gowns; Ares, by contrast, wears studded black leather.
Q 18Who composed the theme and incidental music?
Joseph LoDuca
He earned seven Emmy nominations for the show and won for the season five episode "Fallen Angel".
Q 19The theme music was developed from a traditional folk song from which country?
Bulgaria
"Kaval sviri" was sung by the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir and can be heard in a Hercules episode.
Q 20What was the title of the season three musical episode?
The Bitter Suite
A second musical, "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire", followed in season five; both got soundtrack albums.
They are crucified by the Romans
Caesar is betrayed and killed by Brutus in the same episode, and a mystic named Eli later revives them.
Q 25How long do Xena and Gabrielle sleep after Ares buries them in an ice cave?
25 years
Xena's daughter Eve grows up in that time to become Livia, the Champion of Rome.
Q 26Under what name is Xena's daughter Eve raised by the Roman Octavius?
Livia
She became a ruthless persecutor of Eli's followers before her mother turned her back to repentance.
Q 27What power is Xena granted after Eve's baptism?
To kill gods while her daughter lives
The Twilight of the Olympian gods followed, with Ares giving up his immortality to save Eve and Gabrielle.
Q 28What does Alti's trademark stare do to her target?
Makes them relive old pain
For Xena that meant feeling her legs being broken and her back snapped all over again.
Q 29What did the scripts call Japan, to avoid using a modern name?
Jappa
China likewise became "Chin"; the writers simply dropped the last letter of a country's name.
Q 30What name did the Italian dub give Gabrielle?
Olimpia
The name Gabrielle itself is the French feminine form of Gabriel, the archangel.