At this point, the definition of insanity needs no explanation, which makes you wonder why Prime Video would decide that investing in another sprawling spy universe would be worth the risk after the Citadel fiasco.
The recently-concluded first season racked up an eye-watering price tag of $300 million for the sake of just six episodes, leaving critics and audiences alike so cold that the streaming service effectively admitted in public that the blockbuster espionage adventure had failed to perform in line with expectations.
Did that do anything to prevent a green light for season 2, as well as at least two spin-offs if not more? Of course not, but with the jury still well and truly out on Citadel, Amazon’s platform has nonetheless decided to see if lightning will strike for what would be the first time with City Spies.
The adaptation of James Ponti’s popular literary series follows a 12 year-old coding prodigy recruited by MI6 to join the titular team, a group of talented teenagers mastering the skills of subterfuge in order to infiltrate areas and gain access to locations that adults can’t crack. It sounds decent enough in practice, but we’ve seen what happens when Prime Video goes all-in on expensive capers in this arena.
Nonetheless, it’s been described already as a “four-quadrant action-adventure that will delight audiences of all ages and as a universe-building property for the studio,” but we’ll just have to wait and see if that proves to be true. Based on the Citadel SpyVerse and its execution so far, though, that’s far from a guarantee.