Laysla De Oliveira in “Lioness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Emerson Miller
It’s been an eventful couple of months for Laysla De Oliveira, not only because of the terrific arc of her character, Cruz Manuelos, in Lioness Season 3, but also because of a major accolade the magnetic actress has earned for her performance on the hit Taylor Sheridan series.
In late August, the Critics’ Choice Association announced that De Oliveira was among the 12 honorees at the organization’s 6th Annual Celebración of Cinema & Television. At the CCA ceremony — which is set for Friday in Beverly Hills — De Oliveira will be honored with the Breakthrough Actress Award – Series for Lioness.
Other honorees at the celebration include The Odyssey star John Leguizamo (Career Achievement Award), Project Hail Mary’s “Rocky” voice James Ortiz (Innovator Award) and Obsession star Inde Navarrette (Breakthrough Actress Award – Film).
“I’m really looking forward to being in the room with my community that’s being celebrated and lifted up. It’s such an honor,” De Oliveira said in a recent Zoom conversation. “It’s an honor to be recognized for my work on Lioness, but it’s a greater honor to be in the space that I’m gonna be in and celebrating everybody’s work and carving out space for us in the industry.”
Spoiler alert: The rest of this story reveals major plot points for Lioness Season 3 and its season finale.
Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira in “LIoness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Emerson Miller
Lioness, which wrapped its third season on Paramount+ on Sept. 20, is easily the most intense set of episodes in the global espionage series so far. In it, Lioness’ team leader, CIA Station Agent Joe McNamara (Zoe Saldaña), faces grave threats not only abroad, but at home with her family (Dave Annable, Hanna Love Lainer and Celestina Harris) in Washington, D.C.
Following a messy operation in Ukraine to capture a powerful Russian agent, Joe eludes one kidnapping attempt at her house by unknown foreign agents before she is finally captured, tortured and faces a cruel death by enemies who are difficult to identify.
Working under the guidance of CIA Clandestine Service Supervisor Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman), CIA Deputy Director of Operations Byron Westfield (Michael Kelly) and Secretary of State Edwin Mullins (Morgan Freeman), the Lioness unit — including Cruz, Bobby (Jill Wagner), Kyle (Thad Luckenbill), Tucker (LaMonica Garrett), Josey (Genesis Rodriguez), Two Cups (James Jordan), Randy (Austin Hébert) and Tex (Jonah Wharton) — search desperately for clues to locate Joe.
The team members know their boss is somewhere in the U.S., but the minute the enemy flies her out of the country, their chances of rescuing her are slim to none.
Stephanie Nur in “Lioness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Lauren “Lo” Smith
The Unexpected Return Of Aaliyah Amrohi
While agents from different adversarial governments across the globe are suspected in Joe’s kidnapping, the Lioness Season 3 finale reveals that Aaliyah Amrohi (Stephanie Nur) — a key character from Season 1 — is behind it all.
In the first season of Lioness, Laysla De Oliveira’s Cruz is sent on a covert operation to kill an Iranian terrorist financier but ends up in a dangerous romantic relationship with the billionaire’s daughter, Aaliyah, who is on the verge of getting married. In the Lioness Season 1 finale, Cruz kills both Aaliyah and her fiancé.
While Laysla De Oliveira said she didn’t have a conversation with Taylor Sheridan about everything that was ahead for her character before filming commenced on Season 3, her intuition told her that in some way, Cruz’s story was going to involve shadows from the past.
Laysla De Oliveira and Genesis Rodriguez in “Lioness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Ryan Green
“I always had an inkling that Cruz’s past would come back to essentially haunt her, especially because she’s now such a complete different human than she was in the first episode [of Season 1],” De Oliveira observed. “Her heart’s still there, but she’s essentially become more like Joe.”
However, since Aaliyah’s back in the picture, Cruz’s life is about to get a lot more complicated in Lioness Season 4, should it come to fruition. Not only is the woman she fell in love with trying to kill Joe, but Cruz is also in a serious romantic relationship with Josie.
Essentially, Cruz is facing a Category 5 s—t storm when she finds out that Aaliyah is the architect behind the horrors Joe faced in Season 3.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 29: (L-R) Laysla De Oliveira, Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, and Jill Wagner attend Paramount+’s “Lioness” Season 3 New York premiere at SVA Theatre on July 29, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/WireImage)
WireImage
“Cruz has a full girlfriend, a family that she loves [with her fellow Lioness members] and she couldn’t love Joe any more,” De Oliveira explained. “Joe said she wants to get revenge on who did this and Cruz said, ‘I like the sound of that,’ not knowing that Aaliyah is behind all of it. Once that is revealed, all I can say is that I’m really excited to play that out because those are the scenes I absolutely love doing.”s
As for what that means with Cruz and her relationship with Josie, it’s almost a certainty that some of those scenes are going to be packed with bitter anger, strife and heartache.
“If we get a new season, I don’t think that it’s going to be smooth sailing for my girl,” De Oliveira said of Cruz’s situation going forward. “I think that there will be a lot of decisions that she’ll have to make and there are a lot of emotions that she’s going to experience. We’re probably going to see her in a really raw and vulnerable place.”
Laysla De Oliveira in “Lioness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Lauren “Lo” Smith
But that’s not all; Cruz has her duties as a member of the Lioness team to tend to.
“Cruz is climbing up the food chain in her career, so I’m really interested to see how that works. [There will be questions like,] ‘How do you follow in Joe’s footsteps when you have the history that you do?’” De Oliveira said.
“And the thing about Cruz — and I say this often because these are the conversations that I have with Taylor — it hasn’t been that long since she’s been a Lioness,” the actress added. “There are things that are pretty raw and real in her heart, and although she’s very tough on the exterior, she has a really, really gentle heart, and sometimes it can get in the way.”
With any luck, De Oliveira hopes she’ll be able to show more of Cruz’s heart as the series moves forward.
“I’ve been really advocating and wanting to see her heart a little bit more,” De Oliveira said. “I think that with her past coming back, we’ll hopefully be able to see all of that.”
Stephanie Nur and Laysla De Oliveira in “Lioness” Season 1.
Paramount/Luke Varley
Does Aaliyah Still Love Cruz?
The reveal of Aaliyah being behind Joe’s kidnapping plot has Laysla De Oliveira pondering some interesting questions that Taylor Sheridan will need to answer in his scripts going forward, including, “What happens when something that makes you incredibly vulnerable comes back into your life?”
“At the end of Season 3, Taylor and I started to have more conversations [about Cruz’s dilemma] in case we do officially get picked up for a Season 4,” De Oliveira said. “There isn’t any confirmation of that yet, but there’s definitely some ideas percolating that I’m really excited about.”
Perhaps one of the most pertinent questions regarding De Oliveira’s character is, “Why did Aaliyah want to kill Joe instead of Cruz?” After all, Cruz executed her father and fiancé, even though she was following through on orders to do so.
Another question in the ether is, “Does Aaliyah still love Cruz despite the executions?” Aaliyah cites a line in the Season 3 finale about wanting to capture not only Joe, but her entire Lioness team — yet she doesn’t specifically mention that Cruz is a target.
“I think that question is really exciting for the audience and for myself because this story could really go so many ways — and we don’t know where,” De Oliveira said. “Is there still love there? Is there not? That’s something that I hope we get a Season 4 for and be able to see how Taylor writes all of that.”
Laysla De Oliveira in “Lioness” Season 3.
Paramount+/Emerson Miller
Laysla De Oliveira Is Thrilled With Taylor Sheridan’s Writing Of Cruz
While Laysla De Oliveira is ecstatic over the possibilities for Cruz in Season 4, truth be told, she’s been thrilled with the direction of her character over the entire duration of Lioness since it premiered in 2023.
One thing that she’s known from the very beginning is that Taylor Sheridan is a great writer. That sort of confirmation goes a long way since it flies in the face of criticism the TV luminary has faced for supposedly not knowing how to write female characters.
“I can only speak to the character that I play, and I can say — especially with Season 1 — Cruz is one of the deepest characters that I have ever played,” De Oliveira enthused. “She really jumped off the page so beautifully. “I think this season for Cruz it was a lot more about the action and less about the words, because I am somebody who is so in love with Taylor’s words, especially when he really writes them for Cruz.
“That’s why I’m really excited if we get a Season 4, to hopefully kind of dive back into that depth, complexity and emotion that I think he writes very beautifully.”
All three seasons of Lioness are streaming on Paramount+.
Note: Tim Lammers is a member of the Critics Choice Association.
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