Special Ops: Lioness, the new series from prolific TV creator Taylor Sheridan, now has an official gallery of images showing off its cast. The series will follow a CIA division staffed by an elite team of women trained to work undercover missions. The cast is led by producers Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldaña as well as Locke & Key‘s Laysla De Oliveira and an ensemble that includes Dave Annable, LaMonica Garrett, Jonah Wharton, Hannah Love Lanier, and Morgan Freeman.
Today, Vanity Fair shared a preview of the Lioness series that was jam-packed with first-look images featuring Kidman, Saldaña, and the rest of the cast. The images show two different sides of the Lioness operation, showing Saldaña’s character out on the front lines in combat fatigues and in the office dressed in suits dealing with her higher-ups, which include Nicole Kidman’s Kaityn Meade. The images also reveal Laysla De Oliveira as undercover operative Cruz Manuelos, Michael Kelly as the CIA’s Byron Westfield, and Stephanie Nur as rich heiress Aaliyah. Check out the first-look images below:
Everything We Know About Lioness
While most of Sheridan’s television series have been neowesterns like his 2016 film Hell or High Water, Special Ops: Lioness is poised to be much more like his earlier 2015 outing Sicario starring Emily Blunt and Get Out‘s Daniel Kaluuya. Featuring a group of complicated women at the helm, this series will be much more of a law enforcement procedural. The storyline that this particular series will follow in its first season is an undercover Cruz befriending Aaliyah because her father is a target of a global terrorist group, though their bond and her double life will eventually weigh on Cruz.
Cruz is a tough soldier who is unused to the pampered life of Aaliyah, especially as she is coming out of an abusive relationship. The other characters are just as complicated, including Zoe Saldaña’s Joe, who must balance her desire to be a quiet mother of two with her all-consuming duties as station chief. Kidman’s Kaitlyn, Joe’s supervisor, must also face tough decisions about whether operatives’ lives are worth the sanctity of the mission.
For quite some time, Sheridan has been on top of the world with the Yellowstone universe. However, the main branch of that series is on shaky ground now that it has been announced that star Kevin Costner won’t be returning after Yellowstone season 5. It seems that Special Ops: Lioness is coming at the perfect time to remind the world that Sheridan’s facility for star-studded TV drama isn’t tarnished one bit by this backstage drama.
Source: Vanity Fair
