Priyanka Chopra stars in the Russo Brothers’ next show Citadel, which is all set to release on Prime Video on April 28. Now, in a recent interview, the Russo Brothers have said that the action-packed spy thriller that also stars Richard Madden, Leslie Manville and Stanley Tucci is an answer to the James Bond movies and praised the actor for what she brought into the role. (Also read: Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas hug Karan Johar at NMACC event days after her interview about being bullied in Bollywood)
Last Thursday, the second trailer of the show was released which followed Richard Madden’s Mason and Priyanka Chopra’s Nadia who are called back to the agency to work together. There they struggle with their attraction for each other. These two secret agents have no recollection of their spy lives as their memories were erased following the crash which occurred years ago. Mason reveals that even though he cannot remember much about his job, he hasn’t forgotten Nadia. Meanwhile, Nadia says that she remembers everything.
Now, in a recent interview with Total Film Magazine, the Russo Brothers were asked whether Citadel is their answer to the Bond franchise. To this Joe Russo said, “It’s an accurate way to talk about it, without question. I mean, we loved Bond growing up.” Then Anthony Russo said, “We’re immense fans of Bond, but our job is to try to take what we love about these sorts of genres and films that have influenced us and figure out ways to push them into spaces and places that surprise us … Our job as storytellers isn’t to bring you another version of Bond. Our job as storytellers is to bring you a fresh experience that you are excited and surprised by. So hopefully we hit that mark. We’ll see.”
Further commenting on how Priyanka Chopra’s character was based on what Bond for women can look like, he added, “This is a genre that traditionally has a male lead. And so what was interesting to us was upending that. Priyanka is really gifted physically. She is a badass on camera and she kicks a lot of a** in the show. Without giving too much away, her character is driving a lot of the action for the better part of the series, and Richard’s character is playing catch up. That was a really interesting and exciting idea for us.”
Apart from Citadel, Priyanka also has Love Again with Sam Heughan and Celine Dion. Written and directed by James C Strouse, the film is an English-language remake of the 2016 German film SMS fur Dich, which was based on a novel by Sofie Cramer.