Citadel is a 2023 spy action thriller television series created by Josh Applebaum and Bryan Oh, and executive produced by The Russo Brothers, though Applebaum and Oh left the series mid-production and David Weil (of Hunters, Invasion) was brought on as showrunner. It is intended to be the “mothership” of an international franchise for Prime Video with several local language spin-off series in development for multiple regions.
The story follows an elite global spy agency with loyalty to no one nation called Citadel. When a new enemy, the organization Manticore, destroys it, its agents are memory wiped and sent off into the world to live normal lives. Eight years later, former top agents Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra) are called upon by an old Citadel colleague (Stanley Tucci) to do battle with their old enemies once more.
The series premiered on Prime Video April 28, 2023, with a second season having already been announced and set to premiere in 2026. An Italian spinoff, Citadel: Diana, about a Citadel agent who has infiltrated Manticore as a mole, was released on October 10, 2024. An Indian one, Citadel: Honey Bunny, which serves as a prequel to the original one that focuses on Nadia's childhood when her parents were Citadel agents, was released on November 7, 2024. Both spinoffs were cancelled in April of 2025 after the head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, who had initiated the Citadel franchise, stepped down from her position. Instead, it was announced that those series' storylines would get followed up in season 2 of the main series. Two more spinoffs, set in Mexico and Spain, had been announced, but seem unlikely to happen.
Previews: Trailer 1
, Trailer 2
Citadel contains examples of the following:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The show takes place around 2030 or so, judging by Bernard's comments that Citadel was founded "about a hundred years ago" during the run-up to World War 2. (Also, a comment by Dahlia in the season 1 finale suggests that attack drones were a viable technology at the time her husband was killed, 30 years before the "current" time of the show.)
- Action Girl: Nadia and Celeste are both very adept Citadel agents. They're shown fighting skillfully on many occasions (especially the former).
- Amnesia Episode: Nadia's amnesia lasts an episode, with her memory being restored rather quickly. Mason's memories meanwhile are restored at the very end of the season.
- Amnesiac Hero: Both Mason and Nadia become this as part of Citadel’s Crazy-Prepared nature, with their original memories “backed up” in injectable format. However, Mason’s “memory juice” ends up spilled before he can use it, leaving him a straight take on this trope as he still doesn’t remember most of his past, while Nadia gets her injection and remembers everything.
- Always Identical Twins: Anders and Davik Slije are twin brothers who look entirely alike.
- Battle Couple: Mason and Nadia had worked together as agents of Citadel, fighting many bad guys, while also being lovers.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: Although Citadel are nominally the "good guys," working for the greater good and bringing down existential threats to human freedom and progress, they are no less ruthless and violent in carrying out their ends than any other clandestine spy organization. They can only say they're morally superior to Manticore because Manticore is so blatantly evil that they don't even bother with any pretense.
- Blatant Lies: Bernard convinces Anders to help him escape so they can find Brielle (who is now known as Abby, Kyle's wife). Dahlia kills Anders for his treachery and then lies to his brother Davik that Bernard was the one who killed him. Davik doesn't buy it.
- Braids of Action: Nadia is a covert operative who's very skilled with guns and also unarmed combat. She puts her long hair into a single thick long braid usually when on operations, or once in two braids.
- Cool Train: The pilot episode opens with Mason and Nadia meeting aboard a luxurious train.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Nadia left her daughter Asha to be raised by Asha's grandfather so she could stay protected from Nadia's past as a spy.
- Dark Action Girl: It's not so extensive as Nadia or Celeste, but Dahlia doesn't shy from shooting people in her work with the evil organization Manticore, though she leaves most of the action to her male mooks (she's an old woman).
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Dahlia is a brutal woman with an international criminal organization whose Face–Heel Turn came about due to her love for her husband.
- Two of Dahlia's mooks, Anders and Davik Slije, are also twin brothers who love each other. Anders loves Celeste as well, and wants to get her back.
- Face–Heel Turn: Former international social worker Dahlia joined Manticore when she lost her husband in a botched Citadel operation. She also manages to convince her son Mason to do the same.
- Frame-Up: Dahlia tells Mason how she discovered Serbian terrorists who supposedly killed his father using muliple car bombs (plus many people nearby, children included), were actually the target of the attack, one committed by Citadel with attack drones which went wrong and hit civilians when it was meant for their compound. Afterward, to cover this up, Citadel blackmailed the CIA, UN and other agencies which placed the blame on the terrorists to cover this up. It had caused her Face–Heel Turn for revenge, and got Mason's help to give her classified information on Citadel (that was used for wiping the organization out.
- Heroic Lineage: Nadia says she followed her mother to serve as a Citadel agent, who are presented as largely heroic (if ruthless).
- Honey Trap: Celeste seduced Anders Slije to get close with him and get the Oz Key. He still loves and wants her years later, which is used by Bernard to get his help.
- Identity Amnesia: Initially, Mason and Nadia have no memories of their time as Citadel agents. The second episode reveals this is actually an intentional effect from Citadel activated in the wake of their survival of the train crash.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The initial letters of each episode title spell words, which together form the sentence "The saint is the true sinner."
- I Have Your Wife: Manticore coerces Nadia and Mason's cooperation in getting them nuclear launch codes by kidnapping their daughter Asha, who will be killed if they don't do this. They manage to turn the tables and rescue her.
- Irony:
- Bernard had to pick the one Citadel agent who was the mole who sold them out to "save" the organization.
- Mason going through all this to take on Manticore with no idea he was one of them.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Bernard is extensively tortured for the nuclear codes after being captured, including by having two of his teeth extracted without anesthetic. He only caves when they say they'll murder his ex-wife and daughter however.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: "Backstopping" entails erasing agents of Citadel's memories through a chip in their brains. However, this can be retrieved with a chemical injection (at least if the vial isn't lost).
- The Mole: Manticore was able to bring down Citadel with the help of a Citadel insider, and figuring out who they were is a minor arc for the first season. Turns out it was Mason. Except he thought Dahlia would use the information he gave her to hold Citadel accountable for its actions, not kill everybody.
- Mugging the Monster: After narrowly escaping the fateful train crash, Nadia hitches a ride from a man driving in the woods. Unfortunately for her, the man is a rapist who intended to keep her prisoner. Unfortunately for him, Nadia is a very capable espionage agent.
- Nebulous Evil Organization: Manticore, an organization that wiped out Citadel 8 years ago, and answers to several wealthy families that apparently do War for Fun and Profit.
- The Needs of the Many: Citadel was designed to act independently of any government or organization in order to serve a "Greater Good": what's best for humanity as a whole.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Carter had been friends with Mason for a decade and noted that him threatening her brother was not normal for him. He later learned that Nadia had the raid team's leader hide the Oz key and that Mason was aware of this; Mason accusing Celeste of being a mole was him taking suspicion off Nadia.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Mason's father was killed in his childhood, then his mother abandoned him.
- Asha, Nadia and Mason's daughter, it turns out was later left by her with Asha's grandfather to protect her from Nadia's past as a spy. Mason found out but chose not to contact them as he had other priorities. Asha only encounters them again years later (while this wasn't entirely their fault, as both had their memories erased in the interim).
- Private Intelligence Agency: The Citadel Agency is stated to be loyal to no nation.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Joe, Bernard's ex-wife, is now remarried to Sandra, which she states in her introduction.
- Raised by Grandparents:
- Mason was raised by his grandfather after his father's death and his mother abandoning him.
- Nadia left her daughter Asha to be raised by Nadia's father Rahi.
- Red Herring: Both the audience and characters in-universe are led to suspect that Nadia was the double agent that helped bring down Citadel. The season one finale reveals that the mole was actually Mason.
- The Reveal:
- Abby, Mason's civilian wife is a Citadel agent herself.
- The secret Nadia is keeping in Season 1 is she had Mason's child, who's been kept hidden.
- Mason turns out to have been the mole who brought Citadel down and Dahlia's son.
- Rahi, who's described as a criminal and terrorist, turns out to be Nadia's father.
- The Scapegoat: It turns out Mason had made Celeste become the fall guy to cover up for Nadia taking the Oz Key, as he loved the latter too much to reveal this.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: The scene shifts as Mason and Nadia are depicted getting intimate, then shows them after having sex.
- Signature Style: Each episode opens with the camera upside-down, then slowly rotating 180 degrees to be right side up. (There are additional upside-down shots within some episodes as well.)
- Suicide Attack: Gregor, the Mantincore agent who Mason and Nadia had fought on the train, sets off a bomb after he's mortally wounded in "The Human Enigma" to take them both with him (they survive).
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Mason is trying to convince Nadia that she's a spy, he throws a knife at her in the hopes that she'll instinctually do a badass knife-catch, thus proving to her she's not a regular person (just as he had when Bernard threw a knife at him). But Nadia sensibly just ducks—even for a super-spy, there's no reason to catch an airborne blade if you can just get out of the way. He then has to awkwardly explain what he was trying to do to a now-even-less-convinced Nadia.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The amnesiac Mason and Nadia are shocked to find out they're actually spies. Mason's wife Abby is also revealed to be another former member of the Citadel before having her memories erased as well - by Mason's orders after he framed her for being a mole.
- Tomboyish Name: Joe, Bernard's ex-wife, is a bit of a tomboy in her personal style.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The final scene of Season 1 reveals Mason gave his mother the information on Citadel, agreeing with her on bringing all their illegal activities to the public and have the bosses tried in an international court. It wasn't until the massacre began that he realized his mom was planning all along to wipe it out.
- Wham Shot: Held prisoner, Bernard tells his torturer that the man's long thought dead love, Brielle, is still alive. He then shows her photo...and it's Mason's wife, Abby.
- Whole Episode Flashback: In "Tell Her Everything" nearly all of the action takes place by flashbacks which show the past.
- You Killed My Father:
- Dahlia destroyed Citadel in revenge over them killing her beloved husband accidentally.
- One of Dahlia's mooks, Davik Slije, later also seeks revenge on her after learning she murdered his twin brother Anders.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Bernard gives up the codes to Dahlia after she threatens his family, on the promise that they won't be harmed. He's then horrified when she orders them murdered anyway, for tying up loose ends. They manage to get away unharmed.
