In a tough and competitive business like the entertainment industry, sometimes it takes major swings to find success. And, just a few years ago, that’s exactly what Prime Video did when they hired MCU’s Russo brothers, aka Joe and Anthony Russo, to develop an international, multiseries spy franchise from scratch. Getting started with the six-episode series Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden, the project was coming out with a bang, and had plenty of exciting plans for the future.
With that said, however, Prime Video’s history-making hopes didn’t exactly pan out like they predicted. While the flagship series was plagued with production problems and reshoots, making it one of the most expensive television series ever made at $300 million, the spinoff series, Citadel: Honey Bunny from India and Citadel: Diana from Italy, never reached enough traction and were both cancelled after Season 1. Nevertheless, Prime Video is powering through the bumps, with the second season of Citadel just a few days away.
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What ‘Citadel’ Season 2 Means for the Franchise
While the cancellations of Citadel: Honey Bunny and Citadel: Diana, were certainly indicative of a flailing franchise, Prime Video has persisted with its plans and moved on with production for Season 2 of Citadel, which is set to premiere on May 6, 2026. The second installment, of course, is a clear indication that Prime Video is still betting on the franchise, using its upcoming rendition as a last-ditch effort to salvage the flagship. As a reminder, while Citadel: Honey Bunny served as a prequel to the series as it followed Citadel agents Raahi “Bunny” Gambhir (Varun Dhawan) and Hanimandakini “Honey” Raj (Samantha), who turn out to be Nadia’s (Chopra Jonas) parents, Citadel: Diana was a sequel that took place in the near-future of 2030.
But before assuming the decision to continue with Season 2 of Citadel was unfounded, Prime Video has an unique opportunity to learn from their mistakes and better the series for Season 2. After all, the series scored a divisive 51% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, with reviews calling out the series for prioritizing universe-building over compelling storytelling. In other words, when Season 1 of Citadel was underway, so were the other two spinoff series, so world-building and mythology was an integral part of the narrative. Now, however, with both series being shot down, Citadel has the opportunity to reframe and prioritize character investment and emotional stakes, and leave the franchise world-building as a thing of the past.
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Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
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🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
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01
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You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
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You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
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You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
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The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
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How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
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Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
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Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
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What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
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Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
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It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
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Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
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James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
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Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
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Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
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What Can Viewers Expect From ‘Citadel’ Season 2?
Citadel Season 2 will once again follow Mason Kane (Madden), Nadia Sinh (Chopra Jonas), and Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), as elite operatives after the fall of the legendary Citadel agency at the hands of Manticore, the shadowy network backed by some of the world’s most powerful families. In the new batch of episodes, the trio will be pulled back into action after receiving a terrifying new threat. The official synopsis follows:
When a terrifying new threat emerges, the three are pulled back into action. Now they must recruit an unlikely team of skilled new operatives and launch a globe-spanning mission to stop a conspiracy that could reshape humanity. With blockbuster action, shocking betrayals, and an expanded ensemble of mysterious agents, the stakes have never been higher – and anyone could be friend or foe.
Returning cast members this season include Lesley Manville and Ashleigh Cummings, alongside an expanded ensemble cast featuring Jack Reynor as Hutch, Matt Berry as Franke Sharpe, and Lina El Arabi as Celine. Newcomers to the show include Merle Dandridge, Gabriel Leone, and Rayna Vallandingham.
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With all that said, the second season of Citadel has a lot to prove. With two cancelled spinoff series behind it, and a divisive reception from Season 1, the Russos-led thriller is not only trying to prove its place in streaming, but attempting to justify the massive investment Prime Video once made to get the project up and running. Now with no world-building to establish, the series has a real shot of hitting its grove, but only time will tell.
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