One of Paramount Plus's most action-driven series is coming back next month. Lioness, the CIA thriller created by Taylor Sheridan, returns for its third season in August 2026, according to Screen Rant. The show has been off the air since its second season finale wrapped in December 2024.
The series stars Zoe Saldaña as Joe McNamara, a senior CIA officer who oversees the Lioness program. It launched in summer 2023 and returned for a second season in late 2024. After the season 2 finale, the show went quiet long enough that many viewers assumed it had been canceled. Paramount Plus announced the renewal in October 2025, and filming began that same month.
Season 3 will bring back Nicole Kidman as Kaitlyn Meade, along with Morgan Freeman and Michael Kelly. A teaser trailer has been released. In it, Kidman's character delivers a line that sets the tone for the season: "isn't the end of a fight, it's the start of one."
The new season picks up with consequences from where season 2 left off. Joe, whose professional and personal lives have been kept carefully separate, will face pressure on both fronts. Her home life with husband Neal, played by Dave Annable, and their two daughters becomes entangled with forces tied to her work. A new case is also in play, though specific plot details have not been released.
Lioness occupies a different lane than Sheridan's other work. While he is best known for Yellowstone and its spinoffs, including Dutton Ranch, which recently aired its season finale, Lioness is built around espionage and international action rather than the Western settings that define most of his catalog. The show's all-star cast and CIA-centered premise give it a distinct identity within what fans have come to call the Sheridan-verse.
Season 3 arrives on Paramount Plus in August 2026.
