Season 3 of Taylor Sheridan‘s Lioness looks different after “scheduling issues” led to some changes — including a surprising story line.
During the premiere on Sunday, August 2, the show pivoted away from introducing a new Lioness into the fold. Instead, the team has a new mission when Joe (Zoe Saldaña) is abducted. The twist? She was nearly taken six months prior, which introduces a dual timeline that will play out the rest of the season.
“I will say I had to ask them for a chart of the time because sometimes I thought I would be in one place and then the clothes wouldn’t match where I thought that we were,” Laysla De Oliveira exclusively told Us about how the Paramount+ series will jump back and forth.
De Oliveira, 34, who plays Cruz, sometimes struggled with differentiating where each scene was, adding, “I want to shout out the wardrobe team because that’s very hard to do when you’re shooting out of order and so that also helped me connect with the timeline that we were in.”
Jill Wagner, meanwhile, explained what inspired the shakeup.
“I know that behind the scenes we were dealing with some scheduling issues with some of the characters,” she told Us. “So I was even talking to Taylor and I was like, ‘How are you going to get around this?’ And he’s so brilliant. That’s when he came up with, ‘Oh, we’re just going to move. We’re going to play with time.’”
Created by Sheridan, 56, the hit Paramount+ series is a spy thriller that follows the leader of a CIA team that enlists female operatives — known as Lionesses — to go undercover in the war on terror.
The first two seasons followed Joe (Saldaña) as she recruited Cruz (De Oliveira) and Josie (Genesis Rodriguez) to go undercover. A season 2 mission put the team at risk that nearly ended in a group sacrifice.
Season 3 will raise the stakes as viewers jump back and forth from the past to the present.
“It was just a lot more work. When you don’t have something that falls in a natural progression chronologically, you’re challenged more as an actor to know exactly where you are,” Michael Kelly, who plays CIA Deputy Director of Operations Byron Westfield on the series, told Us. “You have to know that this has happened already and now we’re flashing back and flashing forward. It’s difficult and you’ve really got to.”
He continued: “I’m very proud to say that it was pretty smooth because this whole cast brings 110 percent at all times. It’s the way it was and it’s the way it stayed. It’s pretty rare in the third season of a show for your whole cast to be on the same page of we’re going to make this f**king awesome. Everyone wants it to be as good as it can be and work so hard. It’s great because you’re proud of what you’re doing.”
Viewers will also get to spend more time with the ensemble cast while awaiting updates on Joe’s whereabouts. Wagner, 47, and De Oliveira weighed in on how their characters will be utilized while praising Sheridan for his hard work.
“Taylor writes these characters — whether they’re male or female. He just writes strong characters,” Wagner told Us. “So if you are lucky enough to get to say his words — whether you’re a woman or a man — is irrelevant to me.”
Wagner was thrilled at the chance to bring a character written by Sheridan to life, saying, “I think he’s so good at at writing these interesting and complex characters. It’s a gift to get to say his words.”
De Oliveira couldn’t help but agree.
“Cruz has just expanded me artistically and in my personal life too. I really knew her heart but she’s completely different from me,” the actress not. “So I had to learn how to go to the gym. I had to learn how to yeah hold a gun. Like it was so many new things all at once that it was just a beautiful present for me.”
Filming Lioness changed De Oliveira for the better.
“She’s really taught me how to look at things differently and let me give more things a try,” she continued. “I can be scared to try something because I haven’t done it before but Taylor didn’t give me an option. That has also translated to my everyday choices.”
Lioness airs new episodes Sundays on Paramount+.
