Citadel looked set to be Prime Video's flagship original series, especially with Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo producing the project through AGBO. However, the show's budget has spiralled out of control, making it one of the most expensive series ever produced!
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that multiple sources have informed them about creative differences resulting in the departure of at least half of Citadel's creative team.
Now, expensive reshoots are taking place, adding $75 million to a seven-episode series that was only supposed to cost around $160 million. The only show more expensive than Citadel now is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power!
Described as an Avengers-style spy show, it revolves around spies from across the globe assembling for a huge mission. The plan from there would be for each of those characters to potentially star in spinoffs set in their respective countries, turning this into a massive new franchise for the streaming platform.
Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas are among the big-name leads, but it was when shooting wrapped last December that things started going wrong. We wondered why news about the show had been fairly quiet, and it's revealed that showrunners Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec delivered one cut, with the Russo Brothers pushing another.
Amazon chose to bet on the Russos, and dismissed Appelbaum around Christmas. One source says, "What should have happened was Joe turning to Josh and saying, ‘Let’s get together and fix this’ instead of going solo. That’s not what partners are supposed to do."
There were those who supported the departing showrunner, though, including director Brian Kirk (who helmed five episodes). Among the supposed changes are the removal of a huge action sequence, while the Russos have enlisted cinematographer Thomas Sigel (Extraction) to oversee those reshoots.
While we may never know what Citadel once looked like, the reaction to the series promises to be very interesting. For starters, the big question is going to be whether that $200+ million budget was justified and, if viewers don't respond to the series, it will be a very costly failure for Prime Video.