Elizaveta Neretin who called Vancouver home from 2015 to 2021 plays a mysterious international operative in season 3 of Taylor Sheridan's  Lioness. The series is currently streaming on Paramount+.  Photo by Emerson Miller /Emerson Miller/Paramount+

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Elizaveta Neretin’s first experience working with prolific Yellowstone and Landman writer/producer/director Taylor Sheridan was short but impactful.

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Neretin, who moves between L.A. and New York but called Vancouver home from 2015-2021, landed a small role as the wife of a Russian mob boss in the first season (2021) of Sheridan’s Paramount+ TV series Mayor of Kingstown.

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Being mob boss-adjacent, it’s not a surprise that her character dies.

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“When I worked on Mayor of Kingstown, after the first day of working with him, he sat down next to me and he said, ‘Ahh, why did I kill you?’ And I was like, ‘That’s a good sign’,” said Neretin via Zoom from Toronto.

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She told Sheridan, whose credits also include 1883, Sicario and Hell or High Water, that she was going to Julliard to study theatre. He was supportive of her decision to enrol in the four-year program at the famed NYC school.

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“He’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it. Do the schooling. It’s a great privilege, and I’ll see you on the other side,’” said Neretin. “So I messaged him a month before I graduated, and he said, ‘I have something for you. I hope you’re free.’ And I said, ‘I sure am’.”

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That exchange was in the spring of 2025. By the fall, she was on set in Fort Worth, Texas shooting season three of Sheridan’s hit action spy series Lioness, which premieres August 2 on Paramount+.

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Elizaveta Neretin joins the all star cast that includes Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman for the third season of the CIA thriller Lioness. The series, from TV super producer Taylor Sheridan, is currently running on Paramount+. Photo by Lauren Smith /Lauren Smith/Paramount+

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Starring Oscar winners Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, the Paramount+ espionage series follows Joe McNamara (Saldaña), a CIA a special ops leader who works with a mix of civilian intelligence officers and embedded military to fight terrorism. The show is based on a real-life military initiative where female operatives are used to get close to the wives, daughters or girlfriends of dangerous terrorists and bring down organizations from the inside.

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The synopsis for season three says the Lioness team faces its most dangerous mission to date. During the eight-episode run, “hidden networks, foreign operatives, and personal betrayals collide,” and Joe must walk the line between duty and home “as unseen forces circle her world.”

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In Neretin’s words, Lioness is about “badass women standing up for themselves.”

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But Neretin can’t add much more as Sheridan likes to keep the storylines for his shows very close to his cowboy vest.

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“I’m the igniter of the story. I ignite the story,” said Neretin. “I’m the spark … They don’t want to reveal what catapults the entire story forward.

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“I’m the spark that begins the story that we’re gonna watch unfold.”

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Neretin explains that, as someone working on the show, you too must wait for it to unfold.

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“We receive episodes like a few weeks before we’re shooting the episode,” said Neretin. “I’d say that part is very interesting about working with him because everybody’s on the edge of their seat … It’s all very exciting in that way. It’s very cool.”

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All that was released before the show premiered was that Neretin plays an international operative who crosses paths with Joe.  The international part is interesting when you consider Neretin comes to this character as somebody who fluently speaks, Russian, Ukrainian and French. There’s still no confirmation on which of those languages, if any, were to put to use for Lioness.