Amazon Makes a Huge Bet with International Spy Series 'Citadel'

The upcoming spy series “Citadel” represents a big bet by Amazon’s Prime Video service as it looks to continue its dominance as your dad’s favorite streaming platform, the one with “The Terminal List,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “Reacher,” “Bosch,” and “Goliath.”

Prime Video has enlisted Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of the biggest “Avengers” movies for Marvel, to produce and direct “Citadel,” a series about an independent international spy agency that stars Richard Madden (“Game of Thrones”) and Priyanka Chopra Jones (“Quantico”).

Prime Video has released a trailer for the series, set to premiere on April 28, 2023.

First, the premise: Both Mason Kane (Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Chopra Jones) are former Citadel agency spies who’ve had their memories wiped after the organization was taken down by the Manticore crime syndicate. Eight years later, former colleague Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci, “The Hunger Games” movies) recruits them back into the espionage life.

Related: Best War Movies Streaming Right Now on Amazon Prime Video

The Russo brothers were already in business with Prime Video, since they wrote and directed “The Gray Man,” the 2022 spec ops thriller based on the novel by Mark Greaney. The movie starred Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas and may launch an action picture franchise for Gosling, even though there’s yet to be word about a sequel.

The big idea behind “Citadel” is that it will be the first in a series of shows produced and set in countries around the world. Prime Video has begun production on spinoffs set in India and Italy, and Variety reports that there will be yet another set in Mexico.

Prime Video committed a reported $185 million to the six-episode series, which required substantial revisions after the streamer recruited producer David Weil halfway through production of the first season. Weil is the man behind “Hunters,” the excellent two-season Prime Video series about Nazi hunters in the 1970s.

Rather than drop the entire series at once, Prime Video will premiere two episodes on Friday, April 28, and then release a new episode every Friday for the next four weeks. Prime Video has already renewed the U.S. version of “Citadel” for a second season, so it looks like officials at the streaming service think they’ve got yet another tactical hit on their hands.

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