According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby, Invictus) is the newest addition to Paramount+’s upcoming series Lioness. The Academy Award winner will be starring alongside Zoe Saldaña (Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy) and fellow Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge!, The Hours). Saldaña and Kidman will also executive produce.
Lioness is based on a real program in the CIA and follows a young Marine named Cruz Manuelos, played by Laysla De Oliveira (Locke & Key, The Gifted), who joins the CIA’s Lioness Engagement team and attempts to take down a terrorist organization by befriending the daughter of one of the members, via People.
Freeman will star as the U.S. Secretary of State Edwin Mullins. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Saldaña is set to play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives. Kidman will portray Kaitlyn Meade, the CIA’s senior supervisor who has had a long career of playing the politics game and who must “juggle the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community.”
Taylor Sheridan and Jill Wagner serve as the showrunners for the drama. Sheridan is known for his popular works on Paramount+ including Yellowstone, which lead actor Kevin Costner (The Postman, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) recently won a Golden Globe for, and its origin stories, 1923, starring Oscar nominee Harrison Ford (Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Oscar winner Helen Mirren (The Queen, Hitchcock); 1883 starring Tim McGraw (Tomorrowland, The Blind Side); and upcoming prequel 6666. Wagner is known for her roles in Splinter and Teen Wolf.
Other cast members involved in the project are Dave Annable (What’s Your Number?, Brothers & Sisters), LaMonica Garrett (The Terminal List, Designated Survivor), James Jordan (Mayor of Kingstown, Wind River), Austin Hébert (Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Above Suspicion), Jonah Wharton (NCIS, The Rookie), Stephanie Nur (1883, North of the 10), and Hannah Love Lanier (Road House, The Tiny Mighty Club).
No release date has been set for Lioness as of yet. Sheridan’s Yellowstone seasons one through four are currently streaming on Peacock. Its spinoff shows 1883 and 1923 are available on Paramount+.