Some TV shows are just too expensive to fail. Those series with budgets too astronomical and ambitions too huge that, even if they don’t make the hoped-for impact, there’s no other option but to simply plow ahead anyway and hope no one notices. Yes, Citadel, I’m talking about you.
Perhaps one of the most ambitious television enterprises ever, spy series Citadel is intended to launch an international cinematic universe, with an Indian spinoff (confusingly also called Citadel) and Italian series Citadel: Diana on their way. Unfortunately, the English-language series’ first season earned mixed reviews after its budget soared to $300 million for just six episodes (kinda puts Disney Plus spending $225 million on She-Hulk into perspective, doesn’t it?).
Nevertheless, many Prime subscribers who did check out Citadel season 1 were swept up in its twisty-turny thriller narrative and the chemistry between its two leads, Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. So, despite the behind-the-scenes troubles, a second season has been greenlit. Here’s everything we know.
Citadel season 2 cast and crew
Don’t worry, Citadel fans, both Madden and Chopra Jonas will be back for season 2, reprising their roles as ace spies Mason Kane and Nadia Sinh, who work for the clandestine Citadel agency. The rest of the main cast is likely to return alongside them, including Stanley Tucci as Bernard Orlick, Ashleigh Cummings as Abby Conroy, and Lesley Manville as Dahlia Archer.
It’s probably fair to say that one of the issues behind the scenes on Citadel season 1 was that there were too many cooks in the kitchen — this is a show that had a whopping 18 credited executive producers! So it’s encouraging to hear that one of them, in particular, will be taking charge for season 2. Avengers: Endgame‘s Joe Russo, who also serves as EP alongside brother Anthony Russo, will direct all six episodes of the next run — which will relocate production to California from the U.K. — by himself.
Citadel season 2 plot
No plot details have been announced as yet, but with Citadel season 1 ending with some major shocks and reveals, we’re fully expecting the second season to deal with the aftermath of these bombshells, even if we have no idea where the story will go next.
For starters, Mason and Nadia’s relationship is pretty much in tatters after a minefield of mind-blowing secrets destroyed everything they thought they knew about each other. Not only is Mason really Dahlia’s son and the mole within Citadel, it turns out the pair also share a sibling. So it’s probably no wonder she called off their engagement in the finale. And then there’s poor Bernard getting tortured by Dahlia, don’t forget.
Over its first six episodes, Citadel has shown us that, while it’s not going to win any awards for originality, the show’s appeal lies in just how many well-worn tropes of the spy genre it can machine-gun at us over its trim runtime. So hopefully Russo and his team will continue to keep up the momentum, as well as further flesh out the characters, across season 2.
Citadel season 2 release window
As Citadel is such a mammoth of a TV series to produce, and the fact that filming has yet to begin by the end of January 2024, it’s unlikely that we will see season 2 hit streaming this year. Although we’d hope the next season will have a smoother production than the first, using that as a guide, season 1 shot from January to December 2021 before reshoots took place in mid-2022. In other words, a release window of sometime in mid-2025 at the earliest seems plausible.
Thankfully, we should see the debut of the first two spinoffs in the Citadel Spyverse before then. India’s Citadel, starring Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, should be with us in 2024, given that filming completed in July 2023. Meanwhile, Citadel: Diana — featuring Matilda De Angelis and Lorenzo Cervasio — has been promised to arrive on Prime Video in 2024. The Citadel Cinematic Universe is just beginning — will you be coming along for the ride?