Zoe Saldaña stars in Paramount+’s Lioness. 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. Team Lioness was formed in 2003Iraqi women, refugees from Baghdad, walk next to US Marines in the Iraqi capital in 2003. Photo: ReutersIn the Sheridan series, operatives are portrayed as a team of hand-picked elite female agents from various branches of the US military. 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.”