Where the Russo Brothers are, high-stakes action and thrilling narratives will follow, which is undoubtedly the case with Amazon's newest spy drama, Citadel. The high budgett series is one of the three that'll be coming into the universe, with two others following in its footsteps in Italy and India.
As an entirely original series, Citadel features an incredible cast and crew, ensuring that the show brings to the screens unique twists and turns to the revered genre. While there are many series like it, and even blockbuster hits like the latest, John Wick 4, Citadel brings fresh new dynamics designed for the silver screen to the comfort of peoples' homes. During a junket for the series, CBR got to sit down with show-star Priyanka Chopra and executive producer Joe Russo to break down the character-driven motives alongside the romance, as well as why Marvel Cinematic Universe fans should be excited about the upcoming series.
CBR: Priyanka, you've been in high-action films and TV before, but romance is a fascinating sub-genre here, and it's heavily focused in the trailer. How would you say that you, as an actress, worked with both the emotions of love and trust and blending them together to create a layered character for the sake of the show?
Priyanka Chopra: I think those blurred lines make for some really complex scenes. You could love someone but not necessarily trust them. And I think that muddiness in a scene and that complexity make it so much more fun. It makes the characters a little bit more elevated because the stakes are suddenly higher. So you're like, wow, they care about each other so much -- they're drawn to each other because of some magnetic energy.
It's dirty because there are lies, deceit, and betrayal. What are the stakes? Who's lying, and why are they lying if they care about each other so much? That's very real to human relationships -- we might like to have a utopian ideal of the fact that we have 100% faith and trust in every moment, but those things are tested in every day of everyone's lives. We took a lot of [influence] from real life. Every character is very entrenched in not just the shiny nature of the show but actually with what is happening to them -- what their feelings are and what their choices are.
Joe, you certainly have a lot of fans from the MCU, and there are many character-driven moments in the MCU on top of the high-stakes action. Why do you believe Marvel fans should be excited for Citadel and check it out?
Joe Russo: This is high-octane. It's really propulsive storytelling. There's a lot of action in it, and there's a lot of adventure in it. There are a lot of twists and turns. The ambition and the scale of it are massive -- and MCU fans like immersive storytelling. My brother and I love immersive storytelling. I think what's so ambitious about Citadel is [that] one, it's an original story, built from the ground up. It's not pre-existing; you have no idea what's going to happen. There wasn't a comic book to read, or an old TV show to [adapt]. You're coming into this fresh. Two, we built this incredible community of artists around the world who are working on different shows that feed off of this main show. One in Italy and one in India, in their local languages, using the best artists and storytellers in both countries to do this. I think that's a fantastic concept. Everyone is contributing; we have hundreds of artists around the world contributing to this story.
We had this event in LA about a year ago where we had everyone come from all three shows and work together for two days and build out ideas for the universe. It's probably the proudest moment of my time in the business.
Chopra: Wow, that's crazy.
Russo: Yeah, it was awesome.
Citadel premieres exclusively on Prime Video with two episodes starting April 28, and a new episode every Friday.