We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: between wrangling Kevin Costner for just a few more episodes of Yellowstone and courting Matthew McConaughey for his own Yellowstone spin-off slash franchise contingency plan, Taylor Sheridan is a very busy man. But clearly not busy enough to prevent him from producing yet another full-scale drama series in Special Ops: Lioness, starring and executive produced by Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman, which now has a teaser trailer.
According to Variety, the official synopsis states that this forthcoming spy thriller “… follows the life of Joe (Zoe Saldana) 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.”
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In other words, whether by sheer coincidence or design, Sheridan will be revisiting his roots as the screenwriter behind Sicario.
“[Sheridan] sent me a pilot he wanted me to read, and if I responded well to it, he really wanted to continue writing this character around me,” Zoe Saldana told Vanity Fair.
“When you get a call from someone like Taylor Sheridan… You work really hard, expecting those calls. And when you get those calls, you don’t believe them. I’m known for being the queen of sabotaging myself.”
“Before [Sheridan] had written anything, he was just like, ‘I want a woman to produce this with me,’” recounted Nicole Kidman.
“I said, ‘But I’d also love to be in it, in a sort of pivotal supporting role. I didn’t want to play a lead in a series, but I wanted to speak his dialogue.”
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Before long, the Aussie thespian was cast as Washington DC veteran and senior CIA supervisor Kaitlyn Meade, a manager of power brokers at “the highest levels of US government.”
Other major names you can expect to make an on-screen appearance include Dave Annable as Neil, LaMonica Garrett as Two Cups, James Jordan as Tucker, Sam Asghari as Kamal, Morgan Freeman as US Secretary of State Edwin Mullins, plus Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef as a “rags-to-riches billionaire businessman with ties to terrorism, building his own fortune by legitimate means before profiteering off the wars that destroy the Middle East he’s spent decades helping to rebuild.”
Special Ops: Lioness is scheduled to hit Paramount+ on July 23rd, 2023 – check out the first teaser trailer above and the first-look gallery courtesy of Vanity Fair below.
