Watch the First Teaser for Taylor Sheridan's 'Special Ops: Lioness'

May 21, 2023

The Sheridan-verse drought is officially over, with an all-new, girl-power military thriller here to quench our thirst. Paramount+ just dropped the first teaser trailer for Special Ops: Lioness, the latest series from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan. Starring Zoe Saldaña (Avatar), with Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman in recurring roles, Special Ops: Lioness is a CIA thriller about an all-female team of undercover operatives fighting terrorism. The series premieres July 23 on Paramount+.

Inspired by a real-life U.S. Military program, Special Ops: Lioness is centered on Joe (Saldaña), a young Marine recruited to the CIA's counter-terrorism Lioness Program, overseen by Kaitlyn Meade (Kidman) and Donald Westfield (Jack Ryan's Michael Kelly). Together with aggressive Marine Raider Cruz Manuelos (Locke & Key's Laysla De Oliveira), Joe is tasked with going undercover to thwart the next 9/11. Her tactic? Befriend the daughter of a terrorist group leader and take down the organization from the inside out. Special Ops: Lioness has all the trappings of a classic, sweaty-palms 1990s political thriller, with just a dash of go get 'em, girl! The summer TV landscape is looking explosive, indeed.

In the action-packed first teaser trailer for the series, Saldaña's character, Joe, can be heard explaining the high-stakes program. "We locate the wives and daughters of these high-value targets, and we place an operative close to them. Then we kill the target," she says to scenes of Black Hawk helicopters circling arms fortresses and night-vision kill missions being carried out. It's clear that Special Ops: Lioness is as vast in scope as prestige TV can get.

Nicole Kidman in Special Ops: Lioness. (Greg Lewis/Paramount+)

Fans of the Taylor Sheridan universe won't be surprised to learn that the star-studded cast of Special Ops: Lioness features plenty of tried-and-true Sheridan collaborators. There's Dave Annable (Yellowstone's Lee Dutton... R.I.P.), LaMonica Garrett (1883) and James Jordan (Yellowstone). Hacks alum Sam Asghari and Adam Budron (Wild Indian) round out the stacked cast.

Special Ops: Lioness premieres Sunday, July 23 on Paramount+.

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