After a busy week at the United Nations General Assembly, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, along with her director Anthony Russo, got candid about her upcoming sci-fi espionage series Citadel at a panel discussion at the recently-concluded Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York.
The Indian actress explained what really drew her to this global action franchise that demanded months of her time and that led her to learn and speak six languages.
“You don’t have to watch the American show to understand; the local language series stands alone,” said Priyanka, who is already looking forward to the local spinoffs that will be made for India, Italy, Spain and Mexico markets.
“But if you watch all the other shows, they’re all connected—and that’s never been done in television. To be able to offer a show which cross-pollinates audiences and languages is just so exciting to me. So, it was innovative and that’s what I loved about it,” she added.
For director Anthony Russo and Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, Priyanka was an obvious choice to headline the show.
“When Salke brought up Priyanka, it was like a light bulb went off,” Russo said.
“It was so intelligent and so smart because Priyanka represents the essence of what we’re trying to do with the show. The fact that she’s done such amazing work in India and internationally. She has this sort of dual identity—a foot in both worlds,” added The Gray Man co-director.
Russo explained that the upcoming show is set in the near future and its plot will revolve around a global spy organization called Citadel. The White Tiger actress plays one of the top agents at Citadel, alongside Richard Madden of the Game of Thrones fame.
“This agency ends up coming in conflict with a new rival agency that has been developed by the world’s elite to sort of protect their self-interests,” said Russo.
The Avengers: Endgame co-director also said, “So, it’s a global struggle between these two competing points of view about what humanity should be.”
Citadel is created by Patrick Moran and the Russo brothers for Amazon Prime Video. The series will also feature Ashleigh Cummings, Roland Møller, Stanley Tucci and Osy Ikhile, according to reports.
