“Citadel” is called “spy series in ‘Avengers’ style described. Spies from all over the world must come together for a common mission. The highlight: As with the MCU, there should not only be this one crossover adventure, but the plan is to also do numerous other projects in which the characters experience solo adventures in their homeland. But currently there is the “007-Avengers“ Really stressful, which is why even some of the central forces behind the project had to go.
For “Citadel” Amazon originally relied on the cooperation of some established Hollywood powers. Behind the project are the directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who are mainly known for “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” celebrated great successes as well as the experienced TV writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec (“Alias”).
The seven episodes of the series planned for the beginning, starring “Game Of Thrones” star Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas (“Quantico”), were shot in 2021. But in post-production, the parties are said to have clashed. According to that Hollywood reporters Especially Joe Russo and Josh Appelbaum, who was actually set as showrunner, had completely different ideas about how the story should be presented chronologically. In the end, two completely different cut versions of the first episode were even made.
Amazon then intervened in December 2021 and released Appelbaum from his duties. According to that Hollywood reporters However, this has led to other participants also leaving the project. Among them is Brian Kirk, known for numerous “Game Of Thrones” episodes, who staged a total of five of the seven “Citadel” episodes.
In order to finalize Joe Russo’s vision, reshoots were needed. These were so extensive that according to the Hollywood reporters another budget of 75 million dollars had to be approved. The series was originally budgeted at $160 million. Some insiders believe the true cost is even higher. Compared to the Hollywood reporters a total budget of more than 250 million dollars was called by two sources.
With these costs, “Citadel” would be the second most expensive series to date – only surpassed by “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, also produced by and for Amazon Prime Video. Their production budget for the first season is given as $462 million, which is massively higher, but also includes some costs for further seasons. This already includes high expenses for sets, props, etc., which are then used further, so that the coming seasons will be significantly cheaper and will “only” cost between 100 and 150 million dollars.
The renowned cameraman Newton Thomas Sigel (“Drive”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”) was responsible for the extraordinarily extensive post-shooting for “Citadel” over the spring and summer of 2022. In addition, Amazon also hired author David Weil (“Hunters”), who previously polished the scripts and made the agent action thriller series “more grounded”.
Incidentally, the fact that such extensive changes are now necessary probably has something to do with a Netflix agent thriller. As is well known, the Russos last staged there “The Gray Man“. and the Netflix mega project with Ryan Gosling took up so much of their time that they probably took a break from day-to-day business with “Citadel”. – and so probably realized much too late that the project is going in a completely different direction than they had imagined. That’s what made it happen Clash and now for the many revisions.
“Citadel” is supposed to be so extensive and complex that sometimes three teams were shooting at the same time in different corners of the world. The start of the series is now only expected in 2023. Whether the big franchise will really be tackled after all the headaches with the main series can now be given a big question mark.
