Morgan Freeman has joined the cast of Paramount+’s series Lioness, headlined and executive produced by Zoe Saldana and also starring Nicole Kidman, who executive produces, and Laysla De Oliveira.

Freeman will play Edwin Mullins, the U.S. Secretary of State. Interestingly, this is not the first time Freeman has played a high-ranking member of the U.S. government. He previously played the U.S. President in the film “Deep Impact,” and the Speaker of the House who becomes acting President in the film “Olympus Has Fallen.” His character in the latter film became Vice President in the sequel, “London Has Fallen,” and President in the third film, “Angel Has Fallen.” He also played the director of the CIA in the film adaptation of Tom Clancy’s “The Sum of All Fears” and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in a guest role on the CBS show “Madam Secretary,” which he executive produced.

Lioness is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. Saldana will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.

Lioness series regular cast also includes Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hebert, Jonah Wharton, Stephanie Nur and Hannah Love Lanier. The series is executive produced by Sheridan, David C. Glasser, Saldana, Kidman, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Jill Wagner, Geyer Kosinski, Michael Malone and John Hillcoat.

Morgan Freeman is one of the most iconic actors of his generation. He has received five Academy Award nominations throughout his career for the films “Street Smart,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Million Dollar Baby,” and “Invictus.” He won the award for best supporting actor for his work in “Million Dollar Baby.” He received Golden Globe nominations for all of those films as well, winning for “Driving Miss Daisy.” He is also a three-time Emmy nominee, most recently for best guest actor in a comedy series for “The Kominsky Method” at Netflix. He also recently hosted and produced a nonfiction series "Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman".