Priyanka Chopra has been busy promoting the Russo Brothers’ backed web series Citadel – first in Mumbai, then in London, Rome and Los Angeles, and now in New York. Priyanka’s Prime Video series finally premiered on Friday. First reactions are pouring in on Twitter, and don’t seem too promising. While Priyanka’s performance has being praised by some, the show’s reception has been less than enthusiastic to say the least. Citadel also features Richard Madden in lead role. Also read: Citadel review
Some questioned the ‘whopping budget’ of Citadel. Jeff Zhang, editor and critic at Strange Harbors tweeted, “Citadel is of the worst things I’ve ever seen. A $300 million show that no one will even remember exists in two months.” Alan Sepinwall from Rolling Stone called the expensive series ‘cheap’. “Amazon spent a reported $300 million for the first season of Citadel, a presumptuous attempt to build a franchise from scratch. The results are terribly generic and shockingly cheap-looking,” he tweeted.
A tweet also read, “How did Amazon make it the most expensive show ever? I expected the story to not sound like every other spy show/movie. But again, we’re only 2 episodes in…” A Twitter user said, “Citadel is an objectively bad show. If only some of that whopping budget was spent promoting shows like A League of Their Own (2022).”
The budget for the production of Citadel is above $300 million, nearly ₹2500 crore. This makes it the second most expensive show of all time behind Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022).
Twitter is also full of reactions to Priyanka’s performance in Citadel – some liked it, others not so much. A Twitter user said, “Just finished watching episode 1 and 2 of Citadel and I think it’s just an audition tape of Priyanka Chopra for James Bond…” Another Twitter user said, “The action scenes of Priyanka Chopra in Citadel are so, so lit (fire emoji). I am speechless. Just loved it.” A person also tweeted, “I liked Citadel on Prime Video. Priyanka just crushed it. I saw some hate reviews; not sure what people were expecting.”
The first season of Priyanka’s spy series Citadel consists of six episodes, with two episodes premiering on April 28 on Prime Video. Citadel is executive produced by the Russo Brothers and showrunner David Weil, and also stars Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci and Lesley Manville.
In a recent interview, Priyanka had said that she performed most of the stunts in Citadel on her own without any body double. She had told DNA, “Almost 80 percent of the stunts on the show, I did myself because I trust my body and my instincts. But I learnt a lot and the action that I have done on this show is definitely very different from what I have done before.”