Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Gets Lawless

I didn’t intend for the title to sound like that, but it really works.  That’s right, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be getting Lawless — that’s Lucy Lawless — this fall.  According to TV Guide, the former Xena: Warrior Princess star will be joining the cast of our ragtag team in an unspecified role.

Lucy Lawless, a native New Zealander, made her television debut in the New Zealand sketch comedy series Funny Business.  In 1994, she appeared in the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys‘s feature-length pilot episode — Hercules and the Amazon Women.  She played a man-hating Amazon named Lysia.  After this role, she appeared in another of the series’ first season episodes as Lyla.  But in March of 1995, in the episode titled The Warrior Princess, Lawless introduced the world to one of Hercules’s most formidable foes and, later, greatest allies  — Xena.  The character was well-received due to her arc from bad guy to good guy which led to the creation of the spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess.  The spin-off premiered on September 4, 1995 and went on for six seasons.  It became an international hit and cemented Lawless as an action star.

After Xena, Lawless had multiple recurring roles in various television shows.  One of them was the 2004 – 2009 re-imagined sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.  She would later return to the realm of swords-and-sandals co-starring as Lucretia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand which garnered her a 2011 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.  She can currently be seen on NBC’s Parks and Recreation as Diane Lewis, Ron Swanson’s love interest.

The announcement and introduction of Lawless’s character in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will most likely happen during the Marvel Television Presents panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 25 from 3:00PM to 4:00PM.

ABC will premiere season two of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Tuesday, September 23rd at 9/8c.