Zoe Saldaña Leads Jack Ryan Blend in Special Ops: Lioness
Paramount+'s jack ryan-adjacent Special Ops: Lioness gives Taylor Sheridan’s spy thriller a harder, less tidy edge by pairing it with Sicario’s grit. Zoe Saldaña leads the series as Joe McNamara, a CIA officer running the Lioness program, which pushes female operatives into close contact with terrorists’ circles.
Zoe Saldaña and Joe McNamara
Saldaña plays Joe McNamara, and the setup is built around the Lioness program itself: female CIA operatives get emotionally close to the female acquaintances of terrorists and major criminals. Laysla De Oliveira’s Cruz Manuelos is sent toward that mission through Aaliyah Amrohi, played by Stephanie Nur, after Cruz befriends her to reach a terrorist financier.
Nicole Kidman appears as McNamara’s boss, while Morgan Freeman plays the Secretary of State and Bruce McGill serves as a National Security Advisor. That gives the show a wider political frame than a standard field-operation thriller, with authority figures crowding the mission from above.
Sicario, Jack Ryan, and Sheridan
Released in 2015, Sicario set the template Sheridan borrows here: action, grit, and downbeat intensity. Denis Villeneuve directed that film, and Sheridan wrote its screenplay, so Lioness is not just echoing a tone; it is extending a creative lane he already helped define.
Jack Ryan gives the other half of the formula its shape. Prime Video’s series is a traditional spy thriller based on Tom Clancy’s bestselling novel series, with John Krasinski in the title role, and the contrast is useful: one side is cleaner espionage machinery, the other is messier and more emotionally invasive. That hybrid makes Lioness feel less like a generic covert-ops show and more like a deliberate genre splice.
Season 2 Momentum
Season 1 drew middling reviews, but season 2 received notably stronger reception and outdid Netflix’s political thriller Zero Day with critics. That shift matters because it suggests the series found firmer footing after its first run, even if it began as a harder sell than Sheridan’s broader TV brand.
In August 2025, Lioness was renewed for a third season, which is the clearest sign Paramount+ sees value in the title. The show does not look built for spinoffs soon, so the current run is the product to watch: a 2-part spy thriller with a large ensemble, a cleaner critical profile in season 2, and a design that sits between Jack Ryan’s procedural espionage and Sicario’s harsher worldview.
