Prime Video’s glossy modern spy thriller Citadel is going global

The trailer for the modern TV present, which launched at 3pm on March 1, introduces Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ characters, Nadia Sinh and Mason Kane, across multiple high-octane action sequences. The pair are spies for an elite intelligence agency called Citadel – but eight years ago, Citadel was infiltrated and destroyed, and now the agents are on the shatter. It’s a classic set up, but if it ain’t broke…

Judging by the trailer, the present will feature all the spy-thriller genre staples: explosions, guns, high-speed skiing down a mountainside and several tumultuous encounters between Chopra Jonas’ and Madden’s characters aboard an Orient Express-style train. It’s also pretty star-studded, with Stanley Tucci and Lesley Manville also among the cast.

“They are top spies… the day we meet them is the day that Citadel falls. It’s brought down by this nefarious modern spy syndicate called Manticore,” showrunner Anthony Russo, who helms the series with his brother Joe, says.

Eight years later, the present starts back up again with Mason (Madden). “He’s living this restful life in Oregon with his wife and his daughter. And he’s no memory of who he was or what his past was.” That is, until Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci) knocks on his door.

“[He] needs [Mason’s] encourage to seize down Manticore before they create a modern world order. Mason discovers that Nadia is still alive. And the two then journey the world taking down Manticore and unravelling the very uncertain secrets of their past.”

The launch of the English-dialect Citadel also marks the first pause in an ambitious modern universe for Amazon. As the Russo brothers (who believe worked on multiple Marvel films) clarify, the ultimate goal is to release Citadel series set in multiple different countries, in multiple different languages – telling the account of agents from those countries.

“The concept was an conception that Jen Salke [the head of Amazon Studios] presented to us a few years ago, the notion of telling a account that can be interwoven throughout the world – that would believe a flagship present, and then regional shows written, produced and directed by original talent that could interweave with the flagship present,” Joe Russo says.

“We thought that was such a novel conception for a narrative and an incredible way to create a really diverse global community of storytellers, to show a giant mosaic of the narrative together.”

As might be expected, the present features its purpose share of splashy stuntwork – something that Chopra Jonas still bears the marks of.

“I believe a scar on my forehead… that’s courtesy of Citadel,” she laughs. “But the stunt team were incredible… Nadia’s character is a badass. She comes from a plot of trusting her body and her instincts, and I got to explore a lot of that with the stuff that we did.

“Every time I would read modern pages, the stunts would just secure bigger and bigger. And it was incredible to me to be able to imagine that, and then walk into set and actually execute it.”

She also loves the conception of Citadel’s international, multi-dialect rollout.

“It was so exciting to me as someone who worked for a very long time in a non-English medium to see the success of subtitled work in English dialect territories… that’s so exciting and fascinating to me, the cross-pollination of cultures and how entertainment goes beyond borders and dialect: now, it’s just about storytelling.”

Citadel will air on Prime Video from April 28