Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman will officially return for a third season.
For fans of the show, that’s great news to hear. There was some concern that the show wouldn’t go on after lengthy delays in production and silence in the updates department. It’s been quite some time since we had seen or heard anything about the Saldaña and Kidman-led show. The second season aired its final episode in December of 2024, and Taylor Sheridan usually likes to keep his projects on a consistent release schedule (Sheridan’s loyal following appreciates new seasons every year).
For reference, there was only about a 12 month gap between Lioness’ Season 1 finale and Season 2 premiere. It’s been over 10 months since Season 2 wrapped up, and we’re just now getting the official word that Season 3 has been ordered.
Though a longer wait in between seasons, the silver lining is that the special operations and intelligence series – starring Saldaña, Kidman, Laysla De Oliveira, Morgan Freeman and Dave Annable – will return. As to why the third season renewal news took so long to become public, Deadline originally reported that Special Ops: Lioness and its stars were originally picked up for a three-season acting deal, but Kidman had only signed on to do two. Kidman’s deal for Season 3 had to be worked out, and the show had to find time in the busy schedules of its stars to shoot the show. Both of those factors played into the uncharacteristic delay.
If you’ve never watched the show and you’re just reading this for fun (and maybe trying to get up to date on all the Nicole Kidman news you can), Lioness centers around a CIA operative named Joe (Zoe Saldana) who tries to balance work and personal life while on the frontlines of her agency’s war on terror. Kidman plays Kidman plays a character named Kaitlyn Meade, who is a long-tenured CIA Senior Supervisor. Like Mayor of Kingstown, it’s one of Sheridan’s most underrated series that’s currently airing, and it appears that the next season of Lioness will air sometime in 2026.
How do I know that? Simple, Taylor-Sheridan-show-based math really. The third season of Special Ops: Lioness is scheduled to begin shooting this month. That means that if all goes according to plan, the show should air somewhere around 6 to 8 months afterwards (Landman Season 2 started filming in March of this year, and will air in November).
Sheridan’s military thriller will primarily film at 101 Studios in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which just opened up earlier this year. Sheridan teamed up with Paramount and real estate development company Hillwood to bring the studio hub to the Texas area.
A press release that was made public back in August made the announcement official:
“Hillwood, a Perot Company, today announced a landmark partnership with SGS Studios, which will operate the venture and oversee all production services, to bring large-scale film and television production to the 27,000-acre AllianceTexas development in Fort Worth.
In collaboration with Paramount Television — the studio behind cultural landmarks like Yellowstone and Landman — SGS Studios has launched a cutting-edge production campus totaling 450,000 square feet, purpose-built to support four concurrent large-scale productions. This development marks the largest operating studio facility in Texas.”
And the facilities that make up SGS Studios are fully prepared to replace Hollywood.
Sound stages, mill space, wardrobe, and green screen capabilities are all included in the expansive property, and the space has already been put to use. Back in March, Taylor Sheridan – along with Paramount and 101 Studios – broke the campus in by filming portions of the second season of Landman. The third season of Special Ops: Lioness should begin there at the 101 studios any day now.
Typical Taylor Sheridan… wasting no time to get to business, and now has a special place where he can exclusively shoot his hit shows back-to-back (to-back-to-back).
