He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
One of the first executive decisions made by Prime Video’s new leadership was to pull the plug on the Citadel franchise, spearheaded by the Russo Brothers. Production difficulties caused the six-episode first season’s budget to spiral from $160 million to a reported $300 million, making it one of the most expensive seasons of television ever produced. *Citadel *was designed as a “mothership” series that would be spun off into sequels and prequels set around the world. An Italy-set spin-off titled Citadel: Diana was released in October 2024, while an India-set prequel titled Citadel: Honey Bunny was released a month later. Both spin-offs were canceled a month after the executive who green-lit the franchise vacated their position at Prime Video.
This happened around the same time as the new management delayed the release of the main show’s second season by several months. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden, the first season of the spy-thriller was essentially made twice. It was subsequently reported that **Joe Russo **would direct every episode of the second season, but it appears that he shared duties with Greg Yaitanes. *Citadel *hasn’t been renewed for a third season just yet, and with the spin-offs canceled, it remains to be seen if Prime Video wants to invest in the franchise, especially with James Bond now on the table.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Amazon will reboot the James Bond series with a movie directed by Denis Villeneuve that’s in pre-production. It is expected that the franchise, under Amazon’s creative supervision, will expand to include streaming series and spin-offs for the first time in its decades-long history. In many ways, Citadel was conceived as Amazon’s answer to 007. The first season of the “mothership” series holds a 51% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Citadel spares no expense but still feels underdeveloped, yielding a fairly fun spy caper that nonetheless creaks under the weight of its own exorbitance.” However, Citadel: Diana and Citadel: Honey Bunny fared considerably better, scoring 83% and 75% on the aggregator, respectively. Audience scores for all three shows are languishing in the 60% range. Citadel will return with a seven-episode second season on** May 6.** Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.