Taylor Sheridan’s espionage thriller Lioness is back for season 2 and we’re obsessed.
Source: Ryan Green / Paramount +
The Paramount+ series returned for its second season on October 27 with the first two episodes and we’re already invested. Lioness features a star-studded cast, including series lead and executive producer Zoe Saldaña, who plays Joe — the leader of an elite squad that recruits and trains female assets who work to infiltrate then neutralize key targets. The series also stars Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez and Emmy Award nominee Michael Kelly, with Oscar winner Morgan Freeman, and Oscar and Emmy winner and executive producer Nicole Kidman.
This season follows the CIA’s fight against terror as it moves closer to home. Joe (Saldaña), Kaitlyn (Kidman), and Byron (Kelly) enlist a new Lioness operative to infiltrate a previously unknown threat. With pressure mounting from all sides, Joe is forced to confront the profound personal sacrifices she has made as the leader of the Lioness program. The series also stars Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Thad Luckinbill and Hannah Love Lanier.
Check out the Season 2 trailer
If you were paying close attention to the trailer, you will notice Joe’s daughter Kate is having serious qualms about her career choices. During the first season Kate went through a whole lot and Joe missed much of it because she was away on a mission. This season, we’re already seeing Joe have some difficult conversations with Kate that signal a subtle shift in her parenting tactics.
GlobalGrind Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden spoke with Lioness star and executive producer Zoe Saldaña ahead of the new season about what it’s been like portraying a mother of daughters (Zoe shares three young sons Cy, Bowie and Zen with husband Marco Perego) who is also balancing a stressful and intense job.
“It’s not difficult and I think it is because I’m a parent and I don’t overthink the approach,” Zoe Saldana told GlobalGrind. “ I feel like a mother is a mother is a mother. Whether she’s a stay-at-home mom, she’s a therapist, she’s an artist, she’s a doctor, I feel like we all have a very warm approach when we are able to be super dedicated to our families to just mothering. I didn’t want to overthink on how Joe should approach it.”
Source: Ryan Green / Paramount +
Saldaña also addressed Joe’s newfound openness toward Kate’s questioning.
“Yes we find her in this season in the middle of repairing her relationship with her eldest daughter Kate, which was you know just badly you know battered in the first season because of distance and a lack of communication, so I think that Joe is the kind of individual that makes promises to herself and she keeps her word. She keeps her promises. This transparency that she’s having with her daughter and this desire to be a part of her life and guide her, try to guide her, even when Kate is unwilling to listen, I think that that’s one of the promises that Joe made for herself and that consequently it adds a lot more pressure every time she has to leave and the more and more her life is at risk because of what she does, the bigger the fear becomes of her losing her life and never seeing her family.”
Whew that’s tough. One of the most compelling parts of Lioness has been watching Saldaña’s character walk that tightrope between what she has to do for her job and what she wants to do for her family. One of the best parts of the show is watching Joe be counseled by Nicole Kidman’s character Kaitlyn about how she has to maintain a strong boundary between her worlds in order not to jeopardize her — and other people’s lives.
That said, we’re fully tuned in to see what is ahead!
New episodes of Lioness air every Sunday on Paramount+
