I Wondered Why It Took So Long For Lioness To Be Renewed For Season 3, And A New Report Claims The Answer Is Related To Nicole Kidman
Here's one possible reason why it took so long.

The finale of Lioness Season 2 aired on December 8, 2024. Now, about ten months later, as we’re nearing the end of the 2025 TV schedule, the Taylor Sheridan series has finally been renewed for Season 3. Obviously, that kind of window between a finale and renewal is fairly unusual, and now, along with news that a junior season is coming, it’s been claimed that the long wait had to do, in part, with Nicole Kidman.
Kidman, who is top-billed on the show alongside Zoe Saldaña, was reportedly working out a new contract for Season 3, per Deadline, and that’s partially why we’ve been waiting for months. Apparently, while the Guardians of the Galaxy star had a three-season deal, the Big Little Lies star didn’t, and negotiating her new contract took time.
Along with that, Lioness features many major A-listers (like many Taylor Sheridan shows do), and figuring out a schedule for it has also taken time. Apparently, Season 3 (which you can see the announcement for below) was actually greenlighted earlier this year. However, it wasn’t announced publicly because the schedule, specifically for Kidman and Saldaña, was still being figured out.
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Personally, I don’t find this all that surprising. Nicole Kidman is very busy. In 2024, the year Season 2 of Lioness came out, she also released the miniseries Expats and The Perfect Couple, as well as the movies A Family Affair, Babygirl and Spellbound. Also, in 2025, she was part of the movie Holland and Season 2 of the series Nine Perfect Strangers.
Then, as we look forward to Season 3, we can also anticipate the release of Practical Magic 2, which recently wrapped. On top of that, Kidman is in post-production on two other TV shows called Scarpetta and Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and in pre-production on Discretion and Girls and Their Horses. That kind of slate alone makes scheduling Lioness hard, I bet.
However, it becomes an even harder puzzle when you factor in the rest of the Lioness cast, which notably includes Zoe Saldaña, Michael Kelly, Morgan Freeman, Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner and more.
So, considering all of this, I’m grateful it’s all worked out, and now we know Season 3 of Lioness is really coming.
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It is worth noting that it also took this long to renew Lioness for Season 2.
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Anyway, now it’s time to get excited, because Season 3 of this espionage thriller is coming! And thankfully, while we wait, there’s a lot of other Sheridan shows coming down the pipe. At the moment, Tulsa King is being released for those with a Paramount+ subscription, and this month, on October 26, to be exact, Season 4 of Mayor of Kingstown will premiere in the same place. Then, on November 16, Season 2 of Landman will start, and over the course of the following months, we’ll get a few upcoming Yellowstone shows by way of the Rip and Beth spinoff and Kayce’s CBS series.
So, you’ll have plenty to watch while we wait, because the wait for Season 3 of Lioness really is on, which is very, very exciting.

Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.
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