These are boom times for fans, like me, of spy series. One of the biggest Netflix series in the world right now, for example, is the spy-adjacent thriller The Night Agent, while Showtime has Ghosts of Beirut coming in May and HBO is teeing up two series of its own: The Sympathizer, and Spy/Master. And then there’s Prime Video, which is about to drop one of its biggest shows of the year on Friday: It’s Citadel, a splashy, globe-trotting, and star-studded spy series that’s a joint production between Amazon Studios and the Russo Brothers’ company AGBO.
Moreover, this one is not just another spy series. The show also represents an especially significant streaming gamble for Prime Video, which has envisioned Citadel as the lynchpin of a global spy franchise for the platform. In other words, in addition to the show that’s coming soon to Prime Video, spinoff series are also in the works around the world.
In terms of the main show, the first two episodes of Citadel will debut on Prime Video on April 28, followed by one episode each week thereafter. The show also reportedly carried a staggering price tag: $300 million for just six 40-minute episodes.
Here’s a summary from Amazon of the series’ plot:
“Eight years ago, Citadel fell. The independent global spy agency — tasked to uphold the safety and security of all people — was destroyed by operatives of Manticore, a powerful syndicate manipulating the world from the shadows. With Citadel’s fall, elite agents Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) had their memories wiped as they narrowly escaped with their lives. They’ve remained hidden ever since, building new lives under new identities, unaware of their pasts.”
The action ramps up considerably when, one night, an old Citadel colleague of Mason’s named Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci) tracks him down and enlists his help in stopping the insidious global spread of Manticore. Mason, in turn, seeks out his former partner Nadia, and it’s then a race against time to fight Manticore around the world.
The cast here includes Richard Madden as Mason Kane, alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh, Stanley Tucci as Bernard Orlick, Lesley Manville as Dahlia Archer, Osy Ikhile as Carter Spence, Ashleigh Cummings as Abby Conroy, Roland Møller as Anders Silje and Davik Silje, and Caoilinn Springall as Hendrix Conroy.
David Weil’s work as the Citadel showrunner, by the way, is also especially interesting to me, as he is also the co-creator of another show that I don’t think gets near enough credit: Invasion, on Apple TV+, which presents the story of an alien invasion of Earth through the experiences of different people around the world.
More Citadel footage
During a recent SXSW keynote with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Amazon and MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke, Prime Video debuted an exclusive clip from the upcoming series, which you can check out below.
“You were a spy, like me … for an organization called Citadel …”
The clip features Madden and Chopra Jonas, and it closed out her keynote conversation with Salke, during which they discussed everything from the next generation of women in Hollywood to global content innovation, as well as Chopra Jonas’ leading role in the first-of-its-kind franchise, Citadel. During the conversation, Salke also elaborated on Prime Video’s big ambitions for the series, describing it as “a tentpole kind of big show that commands the attention of the global audience.”
To follow the news about Citadel as the Prime Video debut approaches, be sure to check out the show’s social media presence at the following locations:
Twitter: @CitadelOnPrime
Instagram: @CitadelOnPrime
Facebook: @CitadelOnPrime
