Whether it’s taking down a villain, evading surveillance, or escaping to safe houses, there’s no question that it’s the women who steal the show in HANNA Season Three. And these aren’t your typical lusty, busty stiletto-wearing Bond ‘girls’, either. 

These highly trained female assassins - and one very skilled ex-CIA operative - show us that women aren’t just as capable as men when it comes to spy thrillers, they may even be better.

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HANNA and Utrax

Hanna (Esmé Creed-Miles) continues to showcase her trained assassin skills as she goes up against the top-secret government offshoot, Utrax, attempting to take down the entity from within. Together with her nemesis-turned-ally, Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos), she works to thwart Utrax’s assassination plots of young, politically motivated, socially conscious targets, all while avoiding capture herself.

Hanna is highly focused on her mission, while at the same time working to understand her place in the world. She’s no longer the wide-eyed feral child from the woods in Season One. We see a more mature, adult Hanna in Season Three, one who - in between the elaborate fight sequences - is connecting with others in ways we haven’t seen since her relationship with father (played by Joel Kinnaman in Seasons One and Two).

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HANNA: raw vulnerability

Her relationship with Wiegler blossoms this season, and the two form an impressive duo. But, like any relationship, each sometimes struggles with honesty, leaving us to question whether they should trust each other at all. As in previous seasons, Creed-Miles does a fantastic job at portraying Hanna’s raw vulnerability, and we see her dial that up in Season Three as Hanna meets a potential love interest.

Ex-CIA operative Wiegler burnishes her espionage credentials as she weaves through the streets of Paris and Vienna, directing assets to safe houses along the way. We learn more about her past in Season Three and the driving forces behind her former CIA career, including flashbacks to her traumatic childhood. Moreover, Enos’ portrayal of Wiegler proves that women don’t need to look like the arm candy we’ve been conditioned to expect from other espionage series/film adaptations. 

HANNA: a little rough and ragged

In a Q&A panel with some of the female cast members following a screening in London, Enos said she specifically asked that her character’s wardrobe reflect the things that she “actually needed to do” in her role. She wanted to look the part, even if that meant a little rough and ragged at times. You could say that she wanted to be - quite literally - dressed to kill.

Rounding out the cast of skillful women are assassins, Sandy Phillips (Áine Rose Daly), who remains skeptical of Hanna and fiercely loyal to her Utrax creators, and Jules Allen (Gianna Kiehl), who begins to show more layers than the cold-blooded assassin we’ve grown to know. 

“They tell you so much about what you’re supposed to do,” Allen said in the Season Three trailer, “but not one word about what happens after.” 

Lastly, Utrax employee Terri Miller (Cherrelle Skeete), while not an assassin, plays an integral role in the plot and makes some risky decisions within the top-secret facility.

It’s an exciting time for women in spy thrillers. Season Three of HANNA comes on the heels of notably positive female portrayals in the latest James Bond film No Time to Die.

In HANNA, the women shine

And although Season Three has some heavy hitters like Ray Liotta and Dermot Mulroney, who undoubtedly deliver stellar performances, it’s really the women who shine in the third and final act of the Prime Video series. 

If HANNA is any indication, we can expect more women to continue to break the mold of how we’ve come to expect them to look and act in espionage roles, and I for one am here for it. You can catch the final season of HANNA streaming on Prime Video.
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Christina Hillsberg is an ex-CIA intelligence officer, writer, and mom. She is the author of License to Parent: How My Career as a Spy Helped Me Raise Resourceful, Self-Sufficient Kids. Hillsberg is available for speaking, training and consulting engagements via SPYEX.com.