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Published Sep 30, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT
Makuochi Echebiri is a News Writer for Collider. He has been interested in creative writing from as far back as high school, and he would consume pretty much anything that’s film or TV. However, his truest love lies in the presence of historical epics and thrillers.
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Taylor Sheridan's spy thriller series Lioness divided critics when it first premiered in 2023. Audiences, however, quickly recognized it as another success from the hitmaker behind Yellowstone, and the series has only grown more popular with each passing season. Lioness has now completed its third season, and even the critics appear to be warming up to the show. As one would imagine, putting together a show of this scale with an expanded international scope and intense action isn't exactly easy. Behind all the explosive missions and CIA intrigue is a demanding production, and now one of the show's biggest stars is peeling back the layers.
Zoe Saldaña, who leads the series as Joe McNamara while also serving as an executive producer, has offered fans a closer look at what it actually costs to bring Lioness to life. For the uninitiated, Saldaña's Joe is a senior CIA case officer who oversees the titular espionage program and is responsible for some of the agency's most dangerous operations. It's a position that comes with enormous responsibilities, making it difficult for Joe to find the right balance between her demanding profession and personal life. And while Lioness may not be the heaviest action role we've seen Saldaña take on, as the person at the helm, Joe is often forced to put herself directly in harm's way when an operation goes sideways, while simultaneously making split-second decisions that can determine whether her team comes home alive.
The emotional and physical demands of playing Joe, coupled with her creative responsibilities as an executive producer, mean Saldaña is far more involved with Lioness than what audiences see on screen. In fact, when PEOPLE recently asked the actress about the possibility of crossing over into the wider Sheridan universe and whether she'd be open to appearing in another one of Taylor Sheridan's shows like several of his other stars have, Saldaña made it clear that she already has more than enough on her plate with Lioness. “I think that Joe McNamara and Lioness is all that I can handle at this time,” she said. The actress went on to give fans a glimpse into just how much work goes into playing Joe, revealing that her involvement with the series begins months before she even steps onto the set. “I’m number one on the call sheet. I am first one in, last one out. I am prepping months before anybody ever is able to prep. So it’s already a lot of work for me,” she explained. “I can’t imagine me taking on more of a Taylor Sheridan world.”
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
FIND YOUR WORLD →
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW →
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Zoe Saldaña Is Uncertain About 'Lioness' Season 4
Regardless of the enormous amount of work required to make Lioness, Saldaña reflected with gratitude on her working relationship with Sheridan. “The good takeaway that I’m grateful for is that he (Sheridan) knows that I’m reliable, just like Joe is," she said, adding, "I have my views, and I come with all heart, all brains, all muscle at all times. So, no, I think I’m good here at Lioness.”
Lioness Season 3 was clearly Joe's most grueling chapter. Without spoiling too much, the season centers on her kidnapping at the hands of an old enemy, putting her in the very position her Lionesses have found themselves in so many times before. The change in dynamic brought added intrigue, and fans have clearly remained invested in seeing where the story goes next. Paramount+, however, has yet to decide whether Lioness will return for another season. Saldaña herself doesn't seem to have any inside answers, admitting that she isn't even sure whether the show can continue or what Sheridan would do with it next. "I don’t know if we’re able to go to a Season 4, I don’t know where he would take it,” she said.
The odds do look good as the series has continued to find an audience globally on Paramount+. Lioness is also one of the few Paramount+ shows where Sheridan remains heavily involved creatively, potentially making it an important part of his legacy at the streamer as his deal with Paramount runs out in 2029. Hopefully, Joe and her Lionesses can return for many more missions within that time frame.
Release Date July 23, 2023
Network Paramount+
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Laysla De Oliveira
Cruz Manuelos
