The actress and executive producer tells PEOPLE that neither she nor the cast anticipated the shocking season 3 reveal
Credit: Lauren Smith/Paramount+
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Lioness season 3, now streaming on Paramount+.
NEED TO KNOW
- Zoe Saldaña reveals Aaliyah’s return in season 3 was unexpected and not initially planned by writer-creator Taylor Sheridan
- The show’s original concept involved introducing a new operative each season, but fans’ loyalty to Cruz and Aaliyah shifted plans
- Saldaña says playing Joe challenged her emotionally and physically more than any other role in her career
Zoe Saldaña was just as surprised as Lioness fans by Aaliyah’s shocking return.
Speaking with PEOPLE after the season 3 finale, the actress and executive producer says Aaliyah Amrohi (Stephanie Nur) being behind Joe McNamara’s kidnapping was never something the cast had been anticipating — and she doesn’t think writer-creator Taylor Sheridan had initially planned it either.
“No. Oh my God, I don’t even think Taylor knew it was a possibility,” Saldaña, 48, says when asked if Aaliyah’s potential return had been discussed since season 1.
Aaliyah was introduced in the Paramount+ series’ first season as the daughter of terrorist financier Asmar Ali Amrohi and the target of a CIA operation led by Joe. Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), the Marine recruited as Joe’s Lioness, infiltrated Aaliyah’s inner circle by posing as her friend before the two developed romantic feelings for one another.
Credit: Ryan Green/Paramount+
The mission ultimately ended with Cruz killing Aaliyah’s father and fiancé — and leaving Aaliyah behind — making the character’s return in season 3 a major callback to the series’ beginnings.
Saldaña says the nature of the Lioness program originally meant the show was built to introduce a new operative each season, rather than necessarily return to its first-season story.
“I think what’s important is to remember that the Lioness program relies on us recruiting a Lioness every season,” she explains. “And that is how we’re able to — Taylor, his entire team, Nicole [Kidman] and I as producers — that’s how we’re able to grant amazing opportunities for actresses to jump on board and just raise hell on this show.”
What they didn’t anticipate, Saldaña says, was how strongly viewers would remain invested in Cruz and Aaliyah.
Credit: Lauren “Lo” Smith/Paramount+
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“Were we all relying on the fact that this Cruz and Aaliyah story was gonna garner so much appreciation and passion and just loyalty by the fans? Never. Never,” she says. “Are we grateful? Absolutely.”
For Saldaña, however, revisiting Aaliyah also became a natural progression for the character after what she lost as a result of the CIA operation.
“I think that it was very convenient for Taylor as well, as he’s unfolding and developing these characters season after season,” she says, noting that while Lioness draws inspiration from real-world elements, “it’s ultimately a fictional narrative designed to entertain.”
Still, Saldaña says Aaliyah’s desire for answers felt grounded in the aftermath of what happened to her.
“You’re following the true course of what a person would do if they were in Aaliyah’s shoes,” she says. “I think that we witness this all over the world. We witness children losing their homes, losing their families due to war. And we can never expect that that child grows up to be an adult that is grateful, that forgives and forgets.”
“Sometimes these people are lost forever, either through trauma or PTSD,” she continues. “And if they ever find themselves in Aaliyah’s shoes, to have the power, the influence to come back and find answers for what happened to them, then they would, right?”
Credit: Lauren Smith/Paramount+
For Joe, Aaliyah’s revenge came at an especially devastating time. After being kidnapped, tortured and fighting her way back home, Joe returned to discover a “For Sale” sign outside her house and her family gone.
Saldaña believes the ordeal — combined with the trauma Joe was already carrying — makes it impossible for her character to continue pretending she is unaffected by the demands of her job.
“I can’t imagine Joe thinking that she’s gonna get away with always faking it, thinking that she’s unfailing, that she’s untouched, that she’s, you know, unbeatable, impenetrable,” she says. “She’s a human being, so what happens to her constantly is real.”
In fact, Saldaña believes viewers may have met Joe while she was already living with trauma in season 1, when her previous Lioness was killed.
“She never forgave herself. She can’t ever forget that,” Saldaña says. “I think that she does that so that she won’t ever lose another one.”
The actress says season 3 challenged her in a way no other role has, particularly as she tried to capture the physical and psychological toll of the dangerous world Joe inhabits.
“I think I’ve played characters before that have tested me, that have chipped away my little spirit for the sake of a greater good and a bigger gain,” she says. “But this one in particular, there’s a lot of respect that I draw from physically and psychologically.”
“So it has challenged me in a way that no other character has, for sure,” she adds.
Saldaña has previously spoken about the trust she has developed with Sheridan after three seasons working together.
Ahead of the season 3 premiere, she told PEOPLE that working with the Lioness creator can be a “challenge” because “he does raise the bar,” but emphasized how collaborative he is behind the scenes.
“When he knows that you care, when he knows where you’re coming from, when you know exactly what it is that you want to talk about, he meets you where you’re at,” she said. “He’s very collaborative.”
“I love collaborating with Taylor because I love his mind,” Saldaña added. “I like his art. I like his writing.”
Lioness is streaming on Paramount+.
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