What happens when you combine the second-highest-grossing actress of all time, two Academy Award winners, one of the masterminds of the Yellowstone franchise, and a spy thriller backdrop that boasts more than its fair share of grit? You get Special Ops: Lioness, the upcoming series headed for Paramount Plus later this month, and it looks like Zoe Saldaña‘s leading lady chops are going to spread their wings like never before with this one.
Lioness stars the Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy star as Joe, a Marine who gets recruited by the CIA to go undercover and befriend the daughter of a suspected terrorist being tracked by the agency, and who quickly finds her task to be a particular volatile nuance in her quest to balance her work life and her personal life.
Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, and Laysla De Oliveira also star as allies of Joe, while Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, and James Jordan also feature. The series was created by Taylor Sheridan, whose credits include the likes of Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Sicario, and Tulsa King.
Saldaña looks just at the top of her game here as she does in any of her many blockbuster roles; while most may be used to seeing her dish out some heightened genre fiction beatdowns as galactic warrior Gamora or Na’vi princess Neytiri, Lioness will see Saldaña’s character pushed to the human limits of both mind and body, and however the series ends up performing from a critical standpoint, Saldaña’s top-notch heroine range will no doubt be one of the show’s highlights.
Special Ops: Lioness premieres on Paramount Plus on July 23.