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Sumnima Kandangwa

Freelance Editorial Assistant for Style by SCMP


Taylor Sheridan, the brains behind the beloved Yellowstone series (and its numerous spin-offs) on Paramount+, is largely credited for reviving the Western genre.
So Lioness – which premiered its Season 3 on August 2, and follows CIA operatives from an all-female undercover unit tasked with fighting terrorism – seems a far cry from the rest of his projects that are rife with gunslinging cowboys, rivalries and, of course, horses.

Led by A-list names like Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, the show does feature a mix of action-heavy scenes and morally complex characters that Sheridan fans may be used to. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Lioness is that it was loosely inspired by a real-life all-female US task force known as Team Lioness.
Here’s everything you need to know about this unit IRL.
Team Lioness was formed in 2003

In the Sheridan series, operatives are portrayed as a team of hand-picked elite female agents from various branches of the US military.
In reality, Team Lioness was an all-female volunteer programme established by the US Marine Corps during the Iraq War in 2003, initially formed of female soldiers with the sole purpose of searching women and children for arms and bombs at checkpoints in Iraq where men are prohibited from touching unrelated women, per the Marine Corps Association.
The beginning of Team Lioness is acknowledged in the pilot for Lioness, where Saldaña’s character explains to a new recruit that “when the Lioness team was first formed, we needed female soldiers to frisk and interrogate female insurgents.”
First women in US history to be stationed in direct combat

Aside from searches, Lionesses worked alongside male troops, built rapport with locals, collected intelligence, conducted humanitarian aid missions and more. At the time, women were barred from combat roles. Team Lioness, which was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, made history as the first women in US history to be sent outside the wire.
In 2007, the programme expanded after a volunteer Lioness, 20-year-old Corporal Jennifer M. Parcel, was killed at a checkpoint by a suicide bomber. Parcell’s death led the programme to gain international attention.
In 2008, directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers released Lioness, a documentary film telling the story of five Lionesses and their experience in the unit.
Shannon Morgan, a former Team Lioness soldier, highlights in the documentary that the women were occasionally drawn into battle despite having received no formal training in combat.
“This may come as a shock to America, but we went on lots of missions,” she says in the documentary. “But if our government is going to allow us to play infantry, they should start training us for it. We pretty much wing it.”
Team Lioness is no longer active

When the US troops pulled out of Iraq in 2009, the Lioness programme was shut down and the Marine Corps established Female Engagement Teams (FET), a more structured programme that carried out community-focused missions rather than have the soldiers work alongside combat units.
While Team Lioness may have been phased out, the programme led to wider policy change and in 2013, the US Department of Defence lifted the combat exclusion rule, allowing women to serve in all combat roles.


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Explainer: Did Team Lioness exist? The real US military task force that inspired Taylor Sheridan’s series

Zoe Saldaña, Genesis Rodriguez and Laysla De Oliveira play CIA operatives fighting terrorism in the Paramount+ series, Lioness. Photo: @lionesspplus/Instagram

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Formed during the Iraq War, the unit comprised the first US women deployed in direct combat. So what does the Paramount+ series get right?


Explainer: Did Team Lioness exist? The real US military task force that inspired Taylor Sheridan’s series

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Formed during the Iraq War, the unit comprised the first US women deployed in direct combat. So what does the Paramount+ series get right?

Formed during the Iraq War, the unit comprised the first US women deployed in direct combat. So what does the Paramount+ series get right?