Fifteen years ago, Taylor Sheridan‘s biggest move towards being a household name sourced from his run as Deputy Hale (RIP) in Sons of Anarchy. Now, Sheridan has blown past “instantly recognizable” to practically running the overall Paramount+ show, it seems. Bucketfuls of Sheridan content continue to arrive (and will do so in the future). Several of these shows, including an upcoming Matthew McConaughey vehicle, are directly related to Yellowstone (and Sheridan is further cashing in while renting his ranches out for filming purposes), yet a handful sit outside of that cowboy universe.
Mayor of Kingstown takes Jeremy Renner back to his grittier, pre-Marvel intensity. Tulsa King gives Sylvester Stallone a new chapter in his wizened stardom. Land Man will put Billy Bob Thornton in wheeling-and-dealing mode. And Bass Reeves will star David Oyelowo, Barry Pepper, Dennis Quaid, Forrest Goodluck, and Donald Sutherland while tracing the history of the first Black Deputy U.S. Marshall of the West. Coming up very soon, however, is Special Ops: Lioness, formerly known as Lioness but more on-its-face descriptive now.
This upcoming series will star Zoe Saldaña as a frontrunner within the CIA’s Lioness Program (the show’s version is based upon the real-life entity). As a key operative named Joe, she will mentor and mold recruits to follow in her footsteps, and Joe will also be balancing her own tenuous personal life while these women grow to be fearsome assassins. Layers of moral complexity are to be expected when a terrorist’s daughter enters the picture, and the series largely filmed in Maryland.
Release Date
Special Ops: Lioness will debut on July 23 via Paramount+.
Cast
Saldaña will be back in ass-kicking mode, over a decade after Colombiana proved how riveting she can be as an action star. Nicole Kidman also headlines, and the cast is rounded out by Morgan Freeman, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, Hannah Love Lanier, James Jordan, Jonah Wharton, and Stephanie Nur.
Plot
As the series synopsis indicates, the story “follows the life of Joe (Zoe Saldaña) while she attempts to balance her personal and professional life as the tip of the CIA’s spear in the war on terror… The Lioness Program, overseen by Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman) and Donald Westfield (Michael Kelly), enlists an aggressive Marine Raider named Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) to operate undercover alongside Joe among the power brokers of State terrorism in the CIA’s efforts to thwart the next 9/11.”
Trailer
As of now, no full trailer has materialized for this spinoff, but here’s a rather substantial teaser trailer. Kidman looks to be demanding attention in a role unlike we’ve seen her portray before now, and Saldaña clearly relishes this meaty project after getting lost in franchises for over a decade.
Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness will premiere on July 23.