Don't Count On Lioness Star Zoe Saldaña Joining Another Taylor Sheridan Series - Here's Why

Zoe Saldaña may be one of the stars of the Taylor Sheridan universe, but don't expect her to pop up in "Landman," "The Madison," or any of his other projects for the foreseeable future. "Lioness" has taken up a big part of the Oscar winner's energy, and she simply doesn't have the bandwidth to do more. "I think that Joe McNamara and 'Lioness' is all that I can handle at this time," Saldaña admitted to People in September 2026. The character of Joe was written specifically for Saldaña, which is a major deal for any actor, but also means the expectations are pretty high. 

Likewise, Saldaña's preparation was more intense than her co-stars. "I am prepping months before anybody ever is able to prep. So it's already a lot of work for me," she explained. What's more, beyond that, her day-to-day while filming was also pretty grueling, since, "I'm number one on the call sheet. I am first one in, last one out." The fact that Saldaña is so committed to her role really comes across on screen, but we can totally see why she'd be hesitant to add anything more to her plate. "I come with all heart, all brains, all muscle at all times," she pointed out. 

Alongside the physical requirements (the "Avatar" star shared on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" in August 2026 that she was required to build even more muscle for Season 3), Saldaña regularly voices her opinion on storylines to Sheridan directly. In fact, she's even side-eyed her character's tumultuous love life, telling Entertainment Weekly, also in September 2026, "Taylor and I would have these little micro-disagreements about it." All heart, brains, and muscle!

"Lioness" may ask a lot of Zoe Saldaña, and she might not want to do any other Taylor Sheridan projects simultaneously, but that's not to say the actor doesn't love starring in the CIA drama. "I like being challenged. I really do," Saldaña told People in an August 2026 interview. As fans of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" alum may know, Saldaña also has dyslexia, which was another major hurdle for her with "Lioness." In fact, in July 2023, the actor shared with Entertainment Weekly that she'd even initially turned the opportunity down because of it. "Taylor has incredible writing and his monologues are quite powerful. Up until this project I didn't believe that I can do that. I'm dyslexic, and my first language is not English, so it takes me a little longer to assimilate English grammar and English cadences," the Oscar winner argued. Fortunately, she pushed through it. 

As Saldaña confirmed to People the following year, "I think addressing my dyslexia and my anxiety was the reason why I sort of embarked on this challenge to do a Taylor Sheridan sort of show." Still, she also acknowledged, "That required a lot more hours of preparation." Sheridan has a reputation for being hard-nosed when it comes to his shows, so given just how devoted Saldaña is to pushing herself to deliver the best performance she can, we're not surprised that they work so well together. Still, we can totally see why the actor would prefer not to push herself more than she already has — and TBH, we're just grateful to get a fully-fleshed out Joe McNamara nonetheless.