Everything We Know About Lioness Season 3

Taylor Sheridan’s CIA thriller hasn’t been renewed yet, but don’t worry

Lioness, creator Taylor Sheridan’s action-packed CIA thriller series, is still awaiting renewal from streaming service Paramount+ after the Season 2 finale in December 2024. The official verdict on Season 3 is taking an unusually long time, especially considering that the show is a hit, with the Season 2 premiere earning over 12.4 million views. We expect the show will be renewed; we just don’t know when.

You could say there are four good reasons for the delay in renewal. The cast includes three movie stars — Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, and Morgan Freeman — who are all in high demand, and it’s solely written by Sheridan, the busiest man in showbiz, who writes, produces, directs, and acts across an ever-expanding portfolio of shows. Coordinating all of their schedules is probably nearly impossible, and the fact that Seasons 1 and 2 of Lioness only premiered 15 months apart is something of a miracle. Lioness might not be the highest priority right now, but they’ll get around to it eventually.

Or maybe it has already been renewed, and Paramount+ just hasn’t announced it yet. Sheridan shows play it close to the vest with this kind of information. Paramount+ didn’t officially announce that Tulsa King had been renewed for Season 3 until it started filming. There’s no evidence that Lioness is about to start filming, but we might not know until it happens.

Lioness follows Joe McNamara (Saldaña), a CIA officer who oversees the agency’s Lioness program in the field. Joe recruits, trains, and supervises female operatives who carry out dangerous undercover missions. In Season 1, she sent former Marine Cruz Manuelos (Laysla de Oliveira) to infiltrate a terrorist organization in the Middle East. In Season 2, she recruited Army helicopter pilot Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez) to go undercover in a Mexican drug cartel due to her family connections to the organization. Joe also deals with the stress her job puts on her family, including her husband, Neal (Dave Annable), and their teenage daughter, Kate (Hannah Love Lanier). The show features intense action, equally intense drama, and the most cynical depictions of the CIA ever shown on TV.

While we wait for news, here’s what we do know or are comfortable speculating about when it comes to Lioness Season 3.

Lioness Season 3 latest news 

Zoe Saldaña won an Academy Award for her performance in Emilia Pérez! This doesn’t have anything to do with Lioness directly, but it might increase attention on Season 3. Saldaña has said she “signed up for three seasons at least,” but maybe she can negotiate a pay raise now that she has an Oscar?

Lioness Season 3 premiere date 

There’s no premiere date yet, because the show hasn’t even been officially renewed yet. But we’ll update when we learn more.

Lioness Season 3 production

The good news is that whenever Lioness Season 3 does go into production, it will probably be on your screen quickly. Season 2 filmed from May to August 2024 and premiered in October of that year. The Season 1 finale and the Season 2 premiere were only about a year apart, and that’s even with the writers and actors strikes of 2023. Fast-moving productions are the norm for Sheridan. So if Lioness films this summer, which is possible, it will probably premiere in the fall.

Lioness Season 3 cast 

The next season of Lioness has not set its cast, and there will surely be some new cast members, perhaps some familiar faces from other corners of the Sheridanverse. But here are the regular cast members who are likely to be back for Season 3.

• Zoe Saldaña as Joe McNamara, a hard-edged CIA officer who runs field operations for the Lioness program.
• Laysla De Oliveira as Cruz Manuelos, a tough Lioness whom Joe recruits and alienates in Season 1, but who returns in Season 2 to work with Josephina.
• Genesis Rodriguez as Josephina Carrillo, a helicopter pilot recruited into the Lioness program to spy on a drug cartel. She and Cruz fall in love, which is a complicated situation.
• Dave Annable as Neal McNamara, Joe’s loving and understanding husband, who’s a pediatric oncology surgeon.
• Jill Wagner as Bobby, a Lioness operative who leads the strike team.
• LaMonica Garrett as Tucker, a member of the strike team.
• James Jordan as Two Cups, a member of the strike team.
• Austin Hébert as Randy, a member of the strike team.
• Jonah Wharton as Tex, a member of the strike team.
• Hannah Love Lanier as Kate McNamara, Joe and Neal’s headstrong teenage daughter.
• Nicole Kidman as Kaitlyn Meade, a high-ranking CIA official and Joe’s boss.
• Morgan Freeman as Edwin Mullins, the secretary of state.
• Thad Luckinbill as Kyle McManus, Joe’s fellow CIA officer, who’s not trustworthy and is always getting her in bad situations.
• Michael Kelly as Byron Westfield, the CIA deputy director for operations and Kaitlyn’s boss.

Lioness Season 3 plot

Lioness tends to have a new story as the characters carry out a different mission each season, so Season 3 will probably not be a direct continuation of Season 2. While the events of Season 2 will affect the characters going forward, the season’s two main plots got wrapped up, in suitably bleak fashion. Kaitlyn and Byron negotiated a deal with the cartel’s second-in-command to help install him as the leader in exchange for him not doing business with enemies of the United States like his predecessor, his brother. And in the Middle East, the Lioness team was attempting to intercept Chinese nuclear scientists before they reached an Iranian nuclear base, primarily as a show of force against the two nations for their aggressive, cartel-aided actions at the U.S.-Mexico border. An intense firefight broke out between the team and security forces, and things looked really bad until Delta Force operator Cody Spears (Taylor Sheridan) arrived with the cavalry and saved the day. Both operations were cynical missions meant to protect American imperial power and do nothing to make the world safer.

Where to Watch Lioness 

Lioness Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Paramount+, along with several other Taylor Sheridan series: 1883, Mayor of Kingstown, 1923, Tulsa King, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and Landman.