Do we like R.J. Stewart?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A clean search and a friendly record on Xena's queer fans, but not much public record on his views or personal conduct to go on.
R.J. Stewart is the writer-producer most closely tied to Xena: Warrior Princess. He started on the NBC detective series Remington Steele, then spent more than 20 years writing and producing in Hollywood, with credits that include The Rundown, Major League 2 and Cleopatra 2525.
He is best known as the creative force behind Xena, the Lucy Lawless fantasy series that became a queer touchstone. More recently he turned novelist, self-publishing a post-apocalyptic thriller called Crazy Hawk, and he did the podcast rounds about it and his career.
The most telling story is the one that resurfaced this July. TVLine reported that Universal gave notes on the show's opening credits so nothing hinted at a romance between Xena and Gabrielle, with co-creator Rob Tapert saying the network feared losing advertisers. Stewart's side of it is that the writers embraced the lesbian subtext with “unbridled glee”, leaning into it whenever a story allowed.
Asked over the years whether the pair were gay, he used to say he'd leave it to the fans. These days his answer is “They're definitely gay now.” He also said he liked hearing about Xena nights at gay bars. For a queer family page, that's the right side of the ledger.
On the harm check, there's not much to report either way. Searches for anything he has said about trans people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate came back empty, and his recent work is a self-published novel rather than anything with a culture-war crowd. That's an absence of evidence, so call it a pass on a thin file.
On the good-person side, no court outcomes or credible allegations against him turned up in the searches. I also found no reporting on how he treats his staff, and no big charity record, so there's no real good deed to hold up here. The story is craft and a show that meant a lot to its fans.