While the future of Yellowstone might be up in the air, series creator Taylor Sheridan's various other projects are in full swing. Case in point: the spy thriller Special Ops: Lioness, starring Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman and Laysla De Oliveira. Co-created and co-produced by Jill Wagner, the series follows a CIA program that trains women around the world as undercover operatives.
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Vanity Fair gave fans a first look at the series, featuring never-before-seen photos and insight into how the cast came to be.
Saldaña (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar), who plays Joe, the station chief of the Lioness Program, and serves as executive producer, says she was immediately intrigued when Sheridan sent her the pilot for the show and learned that the Yellowstone and 1923 scribe was writing a character around her.
"He sent me a pilot he wanted me to read, and if I responded well to it, he really wanted to continue writing this character around me," Saldana told Vanity Fair. "When you get a call from someone like Taylor Sheridan.... You work really hard, expecting those calls. And when you get those calls, you don't believe them. I'm known for being the queen of sabotaging myself."
Though Saldaña says she was initially wary of taking on a multi-seasonal show, Sheridan and Kidman's involvement made the project a dream come true.
"It was Taylor Sheridan. Nicole Kidman was already attached to produce, and she was going to play a part in it as well," Saldaña says. "So obviously, that was a dream for me."
Kidman, who also serves as executive producer on the series, says she let it be known early on that she wanted to have an onscreen role in the project.
"Before he'd written anything, he was just like, 'I want a woman to produce this with me,'" Kidman says of Sheridan. "I said, 'But I'd also love to be in it, in a sort of pivotal supporting role. I didn't want to play a lead in a series, but I wanted to speak his dialogue."
Kidman will portray Kaitlyn Meade, a senior supervisor with the CIA who expertly navigates the politics of her profession. Her character reportedly must juggle "the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community, a wife that longs for the attention she herself can't even give and a mentor to someone veering suspiciously close to the same rocky road she's found herself on."
De Oliveira portrays Cruz Manuelos, who, according to Vanity Fair, is a "Marine recruited to gather intel and identify key targets within a global terrorist network."
"She basically just infiltrates this friend group. And it's very different for her because she's used to being a Marine. She's not used to shopping and wearing tiny bikinis," the Locke & Key actor says. "It's so fun because I got to play the extreme of being this very tough Marine with the boys, and then I would go and shoot the stuff with the girls, and we were shopping and going clubbing and dancing and wearing these scrunchy, tight dresses with heels."
De Oliveira also shared details of the interpersonal relationships that will drive the series.
"Cruz comes from an abusive relationship," De Oliveira says. "That abusive relationship becomes a catalyst of her becoming a Marine and completely switching her life around. So, she doesn't always respond to Joe in a way that somebody would in her position."
Other cast members include Morgan Freeman, Yellowstone alum Dave Annable and 1883 star LaMonica Garrett.
