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Avengers: Doomsday is one of the most-anticipated productions of 2026 and, thanks its all-star cast, it is likely to be the most expensive. However, filings released this week show that it could have close competition from another project and Doomsday's co-director Joe Russo is the driving force behind it.
Called Citadel, the Amazon Prime Video series stars Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden of Game of Thrones fame. Its first season debuted on the streaming service in April 2023 and was a key part of Amazon's plan to become a Hollywood heavyweight.
Over the past few years Amazon has attempted to take on the entertainment industry's establishment by commissioning a slew of exclusive content for Prime Video and movie theaters through its MGM brand. Its shows and movies cover almost every major genre.
Lord of the Rings spinoff The Rings of Power is designed to appeal to sword and sorcery fans and cuts no corners as its two seasons cost a record-breaking $1 billion as this author recently revealed. Next year Ryan Gosling will star in MGM's new sci-fi epic Project Hail Mary while American author Don Winslow's novella Crime 101 is being turned into a blockbuster detective drama featuring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte.
Amazon is catering for kids with a live-action film based on beloved 1980s toy He-Man as well as The Sheep Detectives, an action comedy about talking animals starring Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson and Patrick Stewart.
Citadel ticks another box as it is a spy thriller with Madden and Chopra working for the eponymous intelligence agency which takes on a mysterious organization called Manticore. Complicating matters, Madden's character retires after losing his memory but is called back to action to bring down Manticore.
Clearly inspired by James Bond, the show was commissioned before Amazon bought the rights to the suave secret agent. It was the brainchild of former Amazon MGM Studios chief Jennifer Salke who approached Joe Russo and his brother Anthony through their independent studio AGBO in mid-2018 as they were winding down their work on the previous Avengers movie.
Salke envisaged a globetrotting adventure and it came at quite a cost. Citadel was filmed at Britain's historic Pinewood Studios and on location across the country which lifts the curtain on its spending. The cost of streaming shows is usually a closely-guarded secret as studios combine their expenses on all of them in their financial statements and don't break out individual productions.
Shows made in Britain are exceptions as studios set up separate companies for each production they make there in order to get a reimbursement from the government of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country. This fiscal incentive has tempted Hollywood's leading studios to film in Britain but it comes with a catch. The production companies are obliged to file legally-binding financial statements which shine a spotlight on everything from the number of crew members to the worldwide cost of the show and the amount that was reimbursed.
It takes a bit of detective work to get to the bottom of it as the companies usually have code names so that they don't raise attention with fans when filing for permits to film on location. The production company behind Citadel was called Amalgamated Pictures and its filings confirm industry speculation that the show blew its budget.
Widespread reports suggested that reshoots, crew defections and creative strife caused the cost of Citadel to balloon and the filings reveal that "the budget has been exceeded". Its total cost came to $343.5 million (£265.6 million) reflecting rumors that it was the second most-expensive show in history after The Rings of Power. However, that's not the end of the story.
The filings add that the production was reimbursed a total of $57.4 million (£43.6 million) and banked a $1.1 million (£863,472) government grant to compensate for disruption during the pandemic. It brought the net spending on Citadel down to $285 million though it still didn't have a magic touch.
Critics gave the show a score of just 52% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes while audiences were slightly more generous with a rating of 62%. Perhaps surprisingly, its staggering spending didn't count in its favor. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus said that "Citadel spares no expense but still feels underdeveloped, yielding a fairly fun spy caper that nonetheless creaks under the weight of its own exorbitance." Amazon didn't make the same mistake twice.
The studio had such high hopes for Citadel it announced that it had commissioned a second season before the first had even been broadcast. There were already questions about whether it would make it to the opening night. That's because in March 2022 Amazon bought MGM giving it the rights to Bond and making Citadel less essential. Then, precisely three years later, the show's cheerleader-in-chief, Salke stepped down as head of Amazon MGM Studios. It seemed to have an immediate impact.
No sooner had she departed than The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the second season of Citadel would be delayed from its planned fall 2025 release to spring 2026 as Amazon was unhappy with what it had seen so far. That’s not all.
Amazon had such grand plans for Citadel that it also made several non-English language spin-off shows set in the Italian Alps, India, Spain and Mexico. The shows set in Italy and India launched late last year and performed well in their local markets. However, THR claimed that their second seasons and further spinoffs had been put on hold as the flagship show had become the focus of Amazon’s attention.
That scoop was confirmed in April this year when THR revealed that the spinoffs had been canceled and their second seasons will instead be woven into the second season of the main show which will debut in the second quarter of 2026. Joe Russo is directing all of its episodes and, like Doomsday, they have been filmed in Britain.
The second season of Citadel is the first production filmed at Bray Film Studios since it was bought by Amazon in July 2024. Sitting on the bank of the River Thames, Bray is just 26 miles from central London and is famous for being the home of Hammer horror films, producing classics like Dracula and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Citadel's second season began shooting there in September 2024 and wrapped in late November. Although it cost less than its predecessor, it still had a blockbuster budget.
The production company behind season two of Citadel is called Bastion Productions and its latest financial statements reveal that by March 31, 2025 a total of $183.2 million (£141.6 million) had been spent on the show. One of the biggest single costs disclosed in the filings is the $13.5 million (£10.4 million) spent on the crew which came to a monthly average of 183 people without even including freelancers, contractors and temporary staff as they aren't listed as employees on the books of British companies even though they often represent the majority of the workers on a film shoot.
The company banked a $39.5 million (£30.6 million) reimbursement from the government bringing the net spending on season two to $143.7 million which is described as being "in line with the amounts agreed." The show debuts a year after the date of the financial statements so the cost could still surge in post production. If it doesn't then Amazon may have finally found the magic formula and that could be precisely what it takes to stop the curtain coming down on further seasons of Citadel.