Priyanka Chopra and Stanley Tucci on how ‘Citadel’ will stand apart from Shah Rukh Khan-Salman Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Tiger’ spy verse

Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Stanley Tucci are ushering in a new age of espionage with the Russo Brothers’ global spy thriller ‘Citadel’.
The high-stakes series will see Richard and Priyanka play elite spy duo Mason Kane and Nadia Sinh, who are reunited by Stanley’s Bernard Orlick, to embark on a mission to take down the organisation Manticore.

As the clock ticks down to the release of the highly anticipated Prime Video series, ETimes got Richard, Priyanka and Stanley on the hot seat, where they spilled their guts about playing spies in this one-of-a-kind global franchise. As they get ready to launch the American version of the show, an Italian instalment and even an Indian instalment of the series are in the works.

Interestingly, this series comes at a time when India signalled off its own spy verse with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan coming together in the global box office smash-hit ‘Pathaan’. With more films in the works to get their two superstars to face off against each other, we asked Stanley how this show would entice the Indian fans already high on adrenaline with the rooted and patriotic action flicks. Tucci explained, “Well, I think there’s a lot to Citadel. There’s the technical aspect of it – used in the piece itself and then the technology used by the filmmakers to create these amazing worlds and events.”

He went on to add, “But then there’s also the complexity of the plots and the characters. I think the emotional life of the characters are the things that ultimately ground it and make it really interesting.”

In another interview with PeeCee, we asked the actress about playing a spy after her turn as Roma in ‘Don’ and Alex Parish in ‘Quantico’. Chopra exclusively told us, “Look, you can compare the show and the spy thing to anything that you can think of, but I think Citadel is its own world and the beauty of the show and what sets it apart from all the other spy-verses is the heart in it and the characters’ relationships and how that takes precedent.”

“The action and the stunts and the scale always come second to what they are feeling. And it’s very character-led, which is just a joy to do as an actor,” she concluded.

The first season of ‘Citadel’ consists of six episodes with two episodes premiering on April 28, and one episode rolling out weekly through to May 26.