Morgan Freeman Joins Zoe Saldana & Nicole Kidman In Taylor Sheridan's 'Lioness'

Another Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman has joined the cast of Taylor Sheridan's ("Yellowstone") upcoming new espionage drama television series, "Lioness." Paramount+ announced the news this week via an official press release on Friday (Jan. 13).

Sheridan looks to be assembling an all-star cast for the upcoming series.

Freeman is the latest thespian to join the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ original series. The show will star and be executive produced by Zoe Saldaña, Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, Laysla De Oliveira. Per the announcement, Freeman will portray Edwin Mullins, the United States Secretary of State.

The show has a very prestigious pedigree at this point with Sheridan behind the camera. Sheridan also won an Academy Award in 2017 for Best Original Screenplay for "Hell or High Water."

The series is based on a real-life CIA program with De Oliveira as Cruz Maneulos, a rough-around-the-edges but passionate Marine who is recruited to join the CIA's Lioness Engagement Team in order to bring down a terrorist organization from within. Saldaña will portray Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program that trains, manages, and leads the female undercover operatives.

Other series stars include Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Stephanie Nur, and Hannah Love Lanier. The show is being executive produced by Sheridan, Saldaña, Kidman, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Wagner, Geyer Kosinski, Michael Malone, and John Hillcoat.

The 85-year-old Freeman is a two-time Oscar winner. He won his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 for "Million Dollar Baby." In 2010, he won his second Oscar for his performance as Nelson Mandela in "Invictus." He's been nominated for an Oscar five times throughout his illustrious career. Earlier in his career, Freeman won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in "Driving Miss Daisy" in 1990. He was later honored with the Golden Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012. He's also been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award three times.

"Lioness" is the latest original series for Paramount+'s growing television slate. Other streaming shows on the Paramount+ lineup include the "Yellowstone" prequels "1883" and "1923," "Mayor of Kingstown," "Tulsa King," "Bass Reeves," and "Land Man." Between "Yellowstone," its spinoffs, and now "Lioness," Sheridan appears to be one of the busiest creatives in town at the moment. "Tulsa King" already received an early Season 2 renewal last November.

As previously reported by The Blast, Paramount Pictures is also producing a sequel to the 1999 cult classic, "Election," with Reese Witherspoon signed to reprise her iconic role of Tracy Flick in the sequel, "Tracy Flick Can't Win." Original "Election director and co-writer Alexander Payne is also back to them the project, which is being produced as a Paramount+ original feature. Other shows available on the streamer are "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," "Star Trek: Picard," "Star Trek: Discovery," and "Halo."

The show is being produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios and will stream exclusively on Paramount+ later on. It does not yet have an official debut date.