The ‘Lioness’ star tells PEOPLE that being “first one in, last one out” leaves little room for taking on another Taylor Sheridan series

NEED TO KNOW

• Zoe Saldaña says starring in and producing Lioness is all she can handle from Taylor Sheridan’s universe
• She praises Sheridan for writing complex, gender-defying characters and being deeply invested in actors’ performances
• Saldaña is uncertain about a potential season 4 but feels proud of Joe’s demanding and transformative season 3 storyline

Zoe Saldaña has her hands full in Taylor Sheridan’s universe.

After three seasons starring as CIA operative Joe McNamara on Lioness, the actress, 48, tells PEOPLE she isn’t looking to add another of Sheridan’s shows to her résumé anytime soon.

“I think that Joe McNamara and Lioness is all that I can handle at this time,” Saldaña says when asked whether she would consider crossing over into another Sheridan series.

As both the star and an executive producer of the Paramount+ spy thriller, Saldaña says the work required to bring Joe to life begins long before cameras start rolling.

“I’m number one on the call sheet. I am first one in, last one out,” she explains. “I am prepping months before anybody ever is able to prep. So it’s already a lot of work for me.”

“I can’t imagine me taking on more of a Taylor Sheridan world,” she adds.

Saldaña says her experience working with Sheridan has left the prolific creator with a pretty good idea of exactly what she brings to the table. “The good takeaway that I’m grateful for is that he knows that I’m reliable, just like Joe is,” she says, adding that Sheridan knows she is “honest,” “tough as nails” and “vocal and opinionated.”

“I have my views, and I come with all heart, all brains, all muscle at all times,” she says. “So, no, I think I’m good here at Lioness.”

Her costar Michael Kelly, however, has already ventured further into Sheridan’s television universe. Kelly, who plays CIA Deputy Director Byron Westfield on Lioness, was recently announced as joining the cast of Landman season 3.

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But if Lioness returns for a fourth season, Saldaña jokingly warns that Kelly’s other job can’t interfere with his duties as Byron. “Michael can’t be going there and doing more work,” she says. “If we do come back for season 4, we have him first.”

“I don’t see anybody else playing Byron,” she adds. “He’s excellent as [Byron] Westfield, and he’s such a talented actor, and I really enjoy sharing screen time with him. I learn so much from Michael.”

Asked whether she and Sheridan have discussed where Joe could go next after the events of season 3, Saldaña says she doesn’t know what another chapter might look like.

Season 3 put Joe in a dramatically different position after she became the target herself, something Saldaña believes explains why so much of the story unfolded closer to home.

“Joe was the victim,” she explains. “She was the one that was extracted, and she was the one that had to get herself out.”

“In a way, I almost feel like Joe was the Lioness in season 3,” Saldaña continues. “Once again, she was placed in that position where she wasn’t the puppet master, like Kaitlyn is.”

Instead, Saldaña says Joe was forced into the same vulnerable position as the operatives she typically oversees.

“She was forced to become that Lioness that has info, has, in a very forceful way, infiltrated very close on a target and has to get herself out,” she says. “She was the target, and she was also the Lioness.”

As for what Sheridan could have in store if the series continues, Saldaña admits even she doesn’t know. “I don’t know if we’re able to go to a season 4,” she says. “I don’t know where he would take it.”

Saldaña has previously been candid about just how demanding Sheridan’s work can be. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly ahead of season 3, she said she discussed Joe’s storyline with the creator before production began and was ultimately “happy and proud” of where he took the character.

“It was very demanding, I’m not gonna lie,” she said at the time. “I didn’t even know if I was gonna be able to pull it off.”

The Oscar winner has also praised Sheridan for writing characters who aren’t confined by gender, telling audiences at the season 3 premiere in July that she believes Joe “could’ve been a man.”

“We’ve seen various stories of men like Joe,” she said, adding that Nicole Kidman’s Kaitlyn Meade, Kelly’s Byron Westfield and Thad Luckinbill’s Kyle McManus similarly could have been played by actors of another gender.

“When you write something so incredible that it kind of defies gender and race, and it’s just about the merit of that human being, I feel like you give yourself the opportunity of a wider range of actors that can come in and sort of vie for that part,” Saldaña said.

“I have a great deal of respect for men that really know how to write women,” she added. “I’m happy to say that, after playing one of his female characters for three seasons, I’m incredibly honored that he wrote Joe as a woman.”

That respect extends to Sheridan’s approach on set. Saldaña previously told PEOPLE that working directly with the Yellowstone creator has shown her how deeply invested he is in actors and their performances.

“When you work with him is when you realize how passionate he is about actors and about acting,” she said. “I think it is his first love when it comes to the arts.”

Though Saldaña said Sheridan “does raise the bar,” that appears to be exactly what she wants from the man behind Joe — even if one Sheridan series is enough for now. “I like being challenged,” she previously told PEOPLE. “I really do.” 

Lioness is streaming on Paramount+. 

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