Our ‘Citadel’ Season 2 set visit featured a Swedish supermarket, a grenade launcher, and Richard Madden facing gunfire

All the way back in September 2024, Prime Video assembled a team of journalists in London to get a sneak peak behind-the-scenes of Citadel Season 2. We were shuttled in the wee hours of the morning to Bray Studios, where were shown exquisite costumes, 3D models of sets, rubber handguns, and star Richard Madden filming an intense action sequence where he used a coffee table as a shield against constant gunfire. We learned that Jack Reynor and Matt Berry would be joining the series in new roles, an epic action sequence would take place in a Swedish supermarket, and that safety was of paramount importance. (One industrial hallway built for a fight scene came with cleverly padded walls!)

However, we learned little else about Citadel Season 2, meaning exploring the thriller’s set felt like being on a top secret spy mission in and of itself.

Now that Citadel Season 2 is due to debut on Prime Video tomorrow, we have a better sense why the production was so locked down and what it meant that craft departments were given “free rein” by executive producers Joe and Anthony Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot, and David Weil.

Citadel first premiered on Prime Video back in March 2023, introducing viewers to an ambitious new project from MCU maestros Joe and Anthony Russo. This “one-of-a-kind international television spectacle,” per the franchise’s official press notes, would tell the story of a global spy organization called Citadel and its arch nemesis, Manticore. Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden starred as super spies and on/off lovers Nadia Sinh and Mason Kane.

Photo: Prime Video

Citadel Season 1 wound up being the most expensive season of television ever made. Multiple international spin-offs were announced, but only two — the stylish Citadel: Diana and absolutely smashing Citadel: Honey Bunny — made it to Prime Video. When Citadel Season 2 premieres in full tomorrow, it comes with something of a reboot so you don’t have to worry too much about remembering all of the first season’s insane twists.

As star Stanley Tucci explains in voiceover in the Citadel Season 2 trailer, “Here’s all you need to know: a spy network kidnapped me and murdered nearly everyone I care about, which really pissed me off.” The tagline for Citadel Season 2? “New Team. New Mission. One Chance to Save the World.”

When DECIDER met with Citadel Season 2 costume designer Veronica Fragola (whom the production hired off of her stellar work in the aforementioned Citadel: Diana), she explained that this fresh approach to the story allowed her “to redesign everything.”

“I was totally free to design the Italian show and when I came here, Joe [Russo] told me, ‘I want you to make your own new design about the show,’” Fragola said. “They are more on the run in the second season. This allowed me to to invent something different, because what is really strong is the fact that they are always trying to hide themselves and to sneak into a situation pretending to be part of that situation.”

Fragola said that she took inspiration from a documentary on animals, assigning each character their own kind of “animal skin.”

Photo: Prime Video

Another department that was encouraged to have fun with this fresh new vision? The armory. According to one of the show’s top weapons handlers, they were allowed to get away with some “really funky stuff.” One character gets to have not only a a concealed knife that splits into two, but a grenade launcher fitted with a bespoke leg holster. One female character was initially fitted for combat with a grenade launcher, a submachine gun, a handgun, concealed knives, throwing stars, and a knife. Sadly, they had to take some of those props off during filming as it wasn’t practical.

While the action of Citadel Season 2 takes viewers around the world, DECIDER learned that most of the filming had to be done off the M25, aka the main highway that rings around London’s outer suburbs. However, the location scouts were able to find buildings and houses that felt like they could have been from all over mainland Europe. DECIDER even got the chance to roam the aisles of that fully stocked Swedish supermarket, located right there at Bray Studios, just outside London.

When Citadel Season 2 premieres tomorrow, you, too, will get the chance to join the likes of Mason Kane and Nadia Sinh on their wild adventures.