Taylor Sheridan has the magic touch right now. The showrunner seems to announce a new show every month, whether it be part of the expanded Yellowstone franchise or a standalone hit like Tulsa King. Special Ops: Lioness is the latest Sherdan joint to receive the green light, and it gives the Oscar nominee a chance to work with an Oscar winner: Nicole Kidman.
Special Ops: Lioness is an espionage series inspired by real military efforts to combat terror worldwide. Zoe Saldaña will star as Joe, a CIA operative who decides which women to recruit for the titular program, and Kidman will play Kaitlyn Meade, the senior CIA operative who runs the program. While it may seem like a no-brainer to cast Kidman, the actress was initially involved in a producer-only role.
Chris McCarthy, the president & CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, and David Glasser, the CEO and co-founder of 101 Studios, convinced Kidman to sign on as a producer, but the more she got involved with the show, the more she became intrigued by the material.
“I’ve never done this,” Kidman told Deadline. “It was espionage and action. But I knew that I wanted to produce it, and then Taylor and I kept talking. We worked on ideas and kept massaging it.” Eventually, the actress hit upon the idea of playing the mysterious Meade. She cited two specific reasons for wanting to get in front of the camera, and the first was the hardened nature of the character.
“What’s fascinating about a lot of these women, and also people that work in the military, is their ability to handle stress and compartmentalize what they’re doing,” Kidman added. “Kaitlyn is the person that can make decisions under duress with no sleep. She’a a leader. It’s obviously very different if you’re an actor because you’re choosing to be in the world as a sensorial creature.”
The second reason was Sheridan. Kidman cited Sicario (2015) and Hell or High Water (2016), two films written by Sheridan, as being among the best thrillers of the last decade, and wanted a chance to collaborate on something similar. She pointed to Sicario, in particular, as an influence on the grim subject matter of Special Ops: Lioness. “It’s very much in that milieu,” she noted. “[We’re] trying to create new things, new boundaries.”
It’s a good time for Kidman. The actress has experienced a boost in popularity thanks to her AMC ads, and has continued to brandish her resume with supporting roles in blockbusters like Aquaman (2018) and acclaimed HBO shows like Big Little Lies (2017-19). Kidman is also slated to reprise her role as Queen Atlanna in the upcoming sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Special Ops: Lioness will see Kidman join an impressive cast that includes Sam Asghari, Laysla De Oliveira, Martin Donovan and Morgan Freeman. The show will release its first two episodes July 23 on Paramount Plus. These episodes will be an hour each, and the rest will be released on a weekly basis. There will be eight episodes total.