Lioness Season 3 Is Officially The Real Sequel To Taylor Sheridan’s Best Movie

Taylor Sheridan's Lioness has officially cemented itself as the real sequel to his best movie, even though that film already has a sequel. Lioness season 3 recently began, and it's already off to a great start. Between the great reviews for Lioness season 3 and the fact that the series reached number one on Paramount+'s streaming charts (via Collider), it's safe to say the new season is already a hit.

Critical acclaim and popularity is nothing special for Taylor Sheridan's shows on Paramount+. Still, Lioness season 3 has managed to set itself apart in a particularly unique way: by being the perfect follow-up to Sheridan's best movie. Long before Yellowstone and his other shows, Taylor Sheridan was best known for penning movies like Wind River and Hell or High Water. Arguably his best feature film, however, was his 2015 film Sicario, starring Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Emily Blunt.

Sicario, however, already has a sequel: 2018's Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which was also written by Sheridan. While it never achieved the highs of the original Sicario, Day of the Soldado did fairly well with critics, audiences, and at the box office. Additionally, Lioness isn't directly connected to Sicario except through Sheridan, and the stories don't take place in the same shared universe. Still, Lioness season 3 has proven that it's the perfect sequel to Sicario.

Lioness Is A Much Better Sequel To Sicario Than Day Of The Soldado

On paper, Lioness and Sicario are nearly identical stories. They obviously have different characters and stories, while one is a movie and one is a three-season show, but they share almost everything else. Both Sicario and Lioness are unique blends of the spy and military thriller genres. Both follow morally ambiguous main characters with extremely questionable ethics on and off the battlefield. Both also deal heavily with real-world geopolitical conflicts through the lens of fiction, and Lioness season 2 even dealt with Latin American cartels, just as Sicario did.

Lioness is clearly similar to Sicario, both in terms of genre and subject matter, but also in the thrills and adrenaline rushes it delivers to audiences, but it's also a better sequel than the movie's actual follow-up. Lioness is a much more competent military and political thriller than Day of the Soldado is, and it's much closer to the quality of the original Sicario. Day of the Soldado was fine, but it wasn't anything special. Lioness is special.

Lioness is what a sequel to Sicario should have been from the start: the same subversion of the military thriller genre with incredibly layered morals, only bigger and better. Day of the Soldado, in trying to go bigger and better, lost a lot of the nuance, complexity, and pulse-quickening suspense of the original. Sheridan finally managed to get it right in Lioness, and season 3 specifically has proven that he can do this indefinitely. If you liked Sicario, you're better off watching Lioness as a follow-up than Day of the Soldado.

Lioness’ Similarities To Sicario Make It Taylor Sheridan’s Most Unique Show

The many similarities Lioness has to Sicario also serves an alterior function: making it the most unique Taylor Sheridan show on the air. The vast majority of Sheridan's shows, from Yellowstone and its spinoffs to standalone series like Landman and Tulsa King, fall under the same umbrella. They're all either neo-Westerns or revisionist Westerns that deal with family politics, rural settings, and business intrigue.

Even The Madison, which is a very atypical show for Sheridan, still falls under that umbrella thanks to its plot revolving around a family moving from New York to Montana and reconnecting with one another. Almost all of Sheridan's shows are trying to replicate the types of stories he told in Hell or High Water and Wind River, but Lioness is the only one trying to replicate Sicario.

Lioness still has family politics as Joe's job intereferes with her relationship with Neal and her kids, but its status as a military and spy thriller instantly puts it in a league of its own among Sheridan's television works. There's global intrigue, thinly veiled commentary on real-world current events, massive conspiracies, military operations, and more. Nothing else that Sheridan has done since Sicario even feels similar to Lioness.