Morgan Freeman had already been forced to pull out of his promotional obligations for Special Ops: Lioness before SAG-AFTRA went on strike earlier in July. According to The Daily Mail, the 86-year-old Hollywood legend made the tough choice to stay in the United States while the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ series went to the U.K. to support the show.
Freeman had reportedly caught a “contagious infection” and had been battling a fever. “Morgan has a fever and his doctor felt he had a contagious infection, so he cancelled his trip. He is fine now,” The Daily Mail shares. As noted by the outlet, Freeman also lives with fibromyalgia and needs to be extra careful with his decisions.
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Special Ops: Lioness is the latest from Yellowstone and joins the likes of Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and the spinoffs of Yellowstone on the platform. It also comes with another star-studded cast that includes Freeman, Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldana.
The series is a spy thriller, far from the cowboys and outlaws of Yellowstone to the shadows of the CIA. Saldana is a Marine working with the CIA in the war on terror. She is the station chief of The Lioness Program and trains female undercover operatives that embed with their target families to gain access and eventually eliminate them behind the scenes.
Kidman plays the CIA’s top supervisor, while Freeman plays U.S. Secretary of State, Edwin Mullins. Saldana and Kidman are also executive producers on the series that premieres on July 23 on Paramount+. The premiere will be the first two episodes from the series, with a new episode dropping weekly until the finale on Sept. 3 on the streamer.
With the SAG strike now rolling alongside the WGA strike, there won’t be any promotion or celebrity interviews to ponder in the visible future. Special Ops: Lioness will be some of the final content from Sheridan unaffected by the strike, so fans should tune in if they’re starved for entertainment.
