‘Lioness’ Star Officially Confirms Taylor Sheridan Universe Return Fate

Published Sep 30, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Makuochi Echebiri is a News Writer for Collider. He has been interested in creative writing from as far back as high school, and he would consume pretty much anything that’s film or TV. However, his truest love lies in the presence of historical epics and thrillers.

Lured by the brilliance of Middle Earth from an early age both in print and on screen, his palate has since expanded to other realms including Westeros, Kattegat among others. He also possesses a great appetite for the stories that emanate from the vastness of space. Even though he is no Avenger.

Obsessed with storytelling and having works of his own that have yet to make it to print, he is content to use that ability to communicate to as many as are reachable. In his spare time, he looks out for avenues where he can aid people aside from his plans to reign over this earthly realm. Yes…you heard that first here.

Taylor Sheridan’s spy thriller series ***Lioness ***divided critics when it first premiered in 2023. Audiences, however, quickly recognized it as another success from the hitmaker behind Yellowstone, and the series has only grown more popular with each passing season. Lioness has now completed its third season, and even the critics appear to be warming up to the show. As one would imagine, putting together a show of this scale with an expanded international scope and intense action isn’t exactly easy. Behind all the explosive missions and CIA intrigue is a demanding production, and now one of the show’s biggest stars is peeling back the layers.

Zoe Saldaña, who leads the series as Joe McNamara while also serving as an executive producer, has offered fans a closer look at what it actually costs to bring Lioness to life. For the uninitiated, Saldaña’s Joe is a senior CIA case officer who oversees the titular espionage program and is responsible for some of the agency’s most dangerous operations. It’s a position that comes with enormous responsibilities, making it difficult for Joe to find the right balance between her demanding profession and personal life. And while Lioness may not be the heaviest action role we’ve seen Saldaña take on, as the person at the helm, Joe is often forced to put herself directly in harm’s way when an operation goes sideways, while simultaneously making split-second decisions that can determine whether her team comes home alive.

The emotional and physical demands of playing Joe, coupled with her creative responsibilities as an executive producer, mean Saldaña is far more involved with Lioness than what audiences see on screen. In fact, when PEOPLE recently asked the actress about the possibility of crossing over into the wider Sheridan universe and whether she’d be open to appearing in another one of Taylor Sheridan’s shows like several of his other stars have, Saldaña made it clear that she already has more than enough on her plate with Lioness. “I think that Joe McNamara and Lioness is all that I can handle at this time,” she said. The actress went on to give fans a glimpse into just how much work goes into playing Joe, revealing that her involvement with the series begins months before she even steps onto the set. “I’m number one on the call sheet. I am first one in, last one out. I am prepping months before anybody ever is able to prep. So it’s already a lot of work for me,” she explained. “I can’t imagine me taking on more of a Taylor Sheridan world.”

The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.

You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.

You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.

You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.

You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.

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