In the trailer for the second season of Lioness, Zoe Saldaña says in voiceover, “There’s no such thing as a moral war. There’s survival, and there’s surrender.”
The opener sets up the tense first look at the return of the Paramount+ espionage thriller from Taylor Sheridan. The stellar cast is back — including Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez, Michael Kelly, and executive producers Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman — when season two premieres Oct. 27 with two episodes.
“How did we get to where we are today? Nobody’s innocent. Nobody,” Freeman impresses upon Kelly. Elsewhere, Kidman warns that no one can be trusted, while Saldaña stresses to a new recruit, “Do you love your country? Your country needs more.”
Here is the logline for season two: “As the CIA’s fight against terror moves closer to home, Joe (Saldaña), Kaitlyn (Kidman) and Byron (Kelly) enlist a new Lioness operative to infiltrate a previously unknown threat. With pressure mounting from all sides, Joe is forced to confront the profound personal sacrifices she has made as the leader of the Lioness program.”
Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Thad Luckinbill and Hannah Love Lanier round out the cast.
The first season of Lioness added to Sheridan’s Paramount+ stable, which also includes Tulsa King, Yellowstone prequel 1883, Mayor of Kingstown and Lawmen: Bass Reeves, along with the forthcoming second season of Yellowstone prequel 1923 and Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm and Demi Moore. (The final episodes of Yellowstone launch Nov. 10 on Paramount Network.)
Lioness is inspired by a real U.S. military program and revolves around the life of Joe (Saldaña) as she attempts to balance her personal and professional life working for the CIA and the war on terror. “[Sheridan] has a great deal of admiration for the real work that gets done when we’re all sleeping, so he takes it upon himself to highlight this world,” Saldaña previously told The Hollywood Reporter.
When Lioness (formerly titled Special Ops: Lioness) launched in July 2023, it set a record as the most watched worldwide series premiere on launch day on Paramount+ with nearly 6 million total viewers in its first week.
In addition to Sheridan, Kidman and Saldaña, Lioness is executive produced by David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Jill Wagner, David Lemanowicz, Geyer Kosinski, Michael Friedman and Keith Cox and distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
