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.
Amazon is currently planning an elaborate reboot of the James Bond franchise, having taken over creative control from long-time custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. This is arguably one of the most valuable franchises acquired by the tech giant, which previously shelled out $1 billion for the rights to a new Lord of the Rings streaming series. That plan didn’t exactly succeed, with ***The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ***struggling to retain viewers through the course of its run. The James Bond franchise, which will be re-launched with a new movie directed by Denis Villeneuve, will also expand into the world of streaming. Amazon has already experienced growing pains in the area of mega-budget, long-form espionage programming, and it would hope to not make the same mistakes with the 007 franchise.
Around the same time as it developed The Lord of the Rings series, Amazon reportedly spent $300 million on just six episodes of a globe-trotting spy thriller show, which was designed to spawn a shared universe. To spearhead the project, Amazon roped in Joe and Anthony Russo, who were coming off the record-breaking success of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. What transpired in the next few years remains one of the streaming era’s most infamous stories. The show’s first season saw a behind-the-scenes conflict that resulted in it being significantly re-shot, with the original creative team making way for a new set of filmmakers. Two spin-offs followed, but after a recent managerial switch at Prime Video, it was announced that both shows had been canceled. The fate of the original “mothership” series, which returned with a second season this week, remains unclear.
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.
We’re talking, of course, about Citadel. Starring Priyanka Chopra, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, and Lesley Manville, the series borrows heavily from the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises. It follows operatives of the secret spy society Citadel, who must bring down their sworn enemy, a nefarious organization known as Manticore, before global catastrophes unfold. According to FlixPatrol, the second season of Citadel debuted at the number two spot on the global Prime Video viewership chart, behind the holdover hit The Boys. The second season wasn’t promoted with the gusto of Season 1, which premiered in 2023 and holds a 51% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.