News

Oct 08, 2023

Zoe Saldaña Leads the Charge in New Special Ops: Lioness Trailer

The star-studded spy thriller series has set a premiere date of July 23 on

The star-studded spy thriller series has set a premiere date of July 23 on Paramount+.

Award-winning actress Zoe Saldaña is certainly no stranger by now to high-stakes action roles, no matter where in the galaxy she's at, and she's about to take on yet another one back here on Earth. Special Ops: Lioness is the latest upcoming drama series for Paramount+, and with its star-studded cast it's sure to make quite the impact on and off the battlefield. Per a report from Variety, the official premiere date for the series has been set for July 23, and a new trailer has dropped as well, giving a firsthand look at the adapted true story behind the anti-terrorism operation.

Related: First Special Ops: Lioness Images Showcase Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman Going Head to Head

Special Ops: Lioness is set as a riveting spy thriller series that is based on an actual US military program known officially as The Lioness Program. At the helm of the series is Taylor Sheridan, who is best known as the creator and showrunner of the acclaimed neo-Western drama Yellowstone. He's also been working on several other Paramount series including two prequels to Yellowstone called 1883 and 1923, as well as Mayor of Kingstown. He also serves as writer and producer on Lioness alongside Jill Wager, David Glasser, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Geyer Kosinski, and two of the lead stars Nicole Kidman (The Northman) and Zoe Saldaña (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), whom Sheridan personally recruited for the series. Other top tier acting talents appearing will include Laysla De Oliveira (Needle in a Timestack), David Annable (Yellowstone), Morgan Freeman (A Good Person), and David Kelly (House of Cards).

The new trailer opens with a covert meeting between seasoned Lioness Joe (Zoe Saldaña), head of the program Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman), and Edwin Mullins (Morgan Freeman). Meade reveals that the Lioness program has succeeded in gaining close proximity to their latest terrorist target, and aggressive Marine Raider Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) has been tasked with befriending the daughter of said terrorist. The intimate connection closes the gap that ensures the successful elimination of the enemy, and Joe faces the ramifications if such an operation fails and the terrorist is able to carry out their next attack. Cruz becomes deeply embedded behind those enemy lines with no clear way out, which causes panic among the brass, worried that her being compromised will ultimately expose the whole operation. The rest of the program faces the conflict of carrying out the remainder of the mission, even at the sacrifice of one of their own.

"He 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," Saldaña says of collaborating with Taylor Sheridan on the series, per 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."

Special Ops: Lioness premieres exclusively on the Paramount+ streaming platform on July 23.