Taylor Sheridan's Lioness Adds Morgan Freeman
Every new Taylor Sheridan drama promises to be more star-studded than the last. The screenwriter and creator-showrunner of the "Yellowstone" universe (and a handful of other Paramount+ shows) has previously enticed stars like Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Sylvester Stallone, Jeremy Renner, and country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill to the small screen with juicy roles. Now, we can add Morgan Freeman to the list of acclaimed actors heading to streaming thanks to a Sheridan show. The Oscar-winning star of "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Shawshank Redemption" is poised to join Sheridan and Jill Wagner's upcoming Paramount+ series "Lioness," according to Deadline.
Freeman will be in good company with the CIA thriller: the cast list already includes Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, who both will also executive produce the show alongside Wagner and Sheridan. Freeman is reportedly set to play a character named Edwin Mullins, who is the U.S. Secretary of State in the series about a women-led CIA program tasked with dismantling a terrorist organization. It seems likely that Freeman's character would cross paths with Kidman's, as the "Big Little Lies" star is set to play another high-ranking official, CIA Senior Supervisor Kaitlyn Meade.
Here's what we know about Lioness so far
"Lioness" is apparently based on a real-life CIA program. It's unclear at this point how much of the series will be inspired by the truth and how much will be fictionalized, but there's obviously never been an actual Secretary of State named Edwin Mullins. During the early days of the Iraq war, Colin Powell held the position, while Kidman's character also doesn't appear to match up directly with a real-life counterpart, at least in name.
A documentary called "Lioness," released in 2008, follows several female members of the Marines who worked on the ground in Iraq in the early 2000s. According to a synopsis for the show shared by Deadline, Sheridan's "Lioness" will follow a woman named Cruz Manuelos, played by "Locke & Key" actor Laysla de Oliveira. Cruz is a Marine recruit who gets offered a spot on the Lioness Engagement Team, a group of female operatives tasked with going undercover in a war-torn area. Saldaña is set to play Joe, who's directly responsible for training and managing the Lioness team.
We'll let you know more about "Lioness" as news breaks. Right now, the show doesn't have a release date, but in the meantime, if you need a Freeman fix you can find the beloved actor in new releases like "The Minute You Wake Up The Dead" and "Paradise Highway." He also may appear in a TV series follow-up to the 2014 film "Lucy," which is still in development.