Jill Wagner says major U.S. military figures have come up to her and David Lemanowicz and told them they love Lioness. For Wagner, that mattered because the people buying into the show were the ones who know the work best.
That validation is landing now because Lioness season 3 is streaming on Paramount+ in 2026, and interest in the series is being sharpened by the same question Wagner says keeps coming back from viewers: does this really happen?
Wagner said the answer is yes often enough to make the praise feel meaningful. She said the show is told from a female perspective, and she pointed to the reaction from military viewers as proof that the series has found the right balance between drama and authenticity. “And it's such an amazing honor because it's called ‘Lioness’. It's not called ‘Lion.’ It's called ‘Lioness,’ and it's told from a female perspective. That doesn't mean that we don't have amazing male actors and that are portraying some really powerhouse people. But the fact that they're buying it means that we got it right,” she said.
She said her husband’s military background helped her see more of what happens behind the camera and inside the story’s world. That perspective, she said, makes the series feel less like a polished thriller and more like a window into the kind of work that is usually hidden from public view. Wagner also said friends and family have watched the show and asked whether the events really happen, and she said they do.
That is where Lioness keeps its edge. The series is built around the CIA and the U.S. military, but it leans into the kind of morally tangled decisions that rarely come with clean answers. Wagner said even within the show there is still so much people do not know, which is part of why the reactions from military viewers stand out: they are not responding to fantasy, but to details that ring true.
The work is also pulling at home. Wagner said she is a mom of two girls with Lemanowicz, and she said the first season did not have her girls with her in Mallorca or Morocco, which she described as super challenging. She said understanding that her daughters will not be with her in those places is something that will not work for her ever again. The show may be moving into a new season, but for Wagner, the hardest part remains the same: carrying a story built on secrecy while trying to make family life fit around it.
