Karl Conroy (Richard Madden) has a beautiful life in Eugene, Oregon with a comfortable home, a beautiful wife, and a lovely daughter. It’s even more impressive when you consider where it started: waking up in an Italian hospital bed with retrograde amnesia is his only lasting memory of a beautiful woman. What we do know and what he doesn’t know is that Karl was Mason Kane before his amnesia, he was an international superspy. A lot A secret agency called the Citadel… and about to be recalled to active service.
according to a THR Earlier this month, the report was published by Prime Video’s Castle It is the second most expensive series Amazon has ever made (after Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power). It attributes the “multiple sources” price tag to “differences in vision” that caused “half of the creative team” to leave the project, requiring “a series of expensive retakes”. But the studio doesn’t care: it’s been renewed for a second season, more than a month away from its April 28 premiere.
The series has all the elements audiences expect to see in a spy drama: sexy lead roles, shifting commitments, fast-paced fight sequences, and world-leading action. Their passions are reflected in the pedigrees of behind-the-scenes talent, including executive producer Joe Russo. With his brother Anthony (who is also a Castle EP), Russo directed the last two. avengers movies, plus Captain America: Civil War; Russos also produced this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner. Everything Everywhere at the Same Time.
Obviously, action is a genre they are very familiar with. Castle Did it jump in front of other fields the Russians took? Earlier this month, Joe Russo told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed that he was involved. Castle After a sales pitch by Jennifer Salke, President of Amazon Studios. “It was a whole new way of telling a story,” Russo said.
Castle
Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh and Richard Madden as Mason Kane in ‘The Citadel’
Courtesy of Prime Video
Salke’s idea: to create a world rich enough to start with an English-language show, then turn it into a franchise with installments in countries around the world, and be produced by “top storytellers” everywhere who can “change the tone”. and cultural context” for their particular market.
As a veteran of Marvel, the biggest cinematic universe in entertainment, Russo’s attention has been drawn to the opportunity to add many voices to the storytelling process. “We flew everyone to Los Angeles to sit in our offices at AGBO,” Russo said, referring to the production company Russos founded with Mike LaRocca. “It was probably one of our proudest moments in the industry, with this amazing collection of different voices working together and creating an original story from the ground up.”
one of the ways CastleThe producers of ‘ s set their international collaborators for success, and making the series feel real was a direct acceptance of the current political moment.
Early on in the series’ premiere, for example, Dahlia Archer (Lesley Manville), the UK ambassador to the US, sits down for a TV interview with the BBC. Journalist Marjorie (Erin Boswell) asks Dahlia whether certain nation-states are too powerful, with “(among other things) “monopolies over natural resources” and “propensity to wage war to advance GDP interests”. It lures the nations that make up the “former” nations into accepting that their power must be limited, and then goes on to argue that such a threatening nation is the United Kingdom, given all the countries it has occupied and the economies it has destabilized.
The Russo Brothers and the ‘Citadel’ cast
Masha Maltsava/Prime Video
Dahlia, cornered to defend imperialist policies (moderate spoiler) Castle‘s worst villain; This is no coincidence. “You’ll notice that the Citadel’s arch-nemesis, Manticore, is made up of a gang of wealthy elites who want to manipulate the interests of the world in their favor so they can fill their pockets further,” Russo said. “It’s probably not different from what we’re experiencing in our world right now.”
Russo affirmed that politics is inherent in all of his work, not just this story. “My brother and I grew up in a political family in Cleveland, Ohio,” Russo said. “Our father was a councilor and then a judge. It has always been internal to who we are. Even in our Marvel movies, we try to instill in them themes that are there for you if you want brain food.”
When you look at anything in pop culture, “There’s context in the modern world,” he continued. “We have comment [in our superhero films]and this show is no different. There are definitely comments throughout.
But a documentary about today’s geopolitics may be the last thing the average Prime Video viewer wants to explore after a long day at work. Russo gets it. Castle It’s not much of a documentary drama, but it doesn’t have to be fluffy either. “The world can be overwhelming,” he said. “We are constantly receiving information. Sometimes, in fantasy and escapism, you can process events in ways you wouldn’t understand when you read the headlines. It’s a challenging part of storytelling for us.”
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