Citadel Ended Up Costing More Than Cameron's Avatar After Off-Screen Drama

Ever since Rings of Power was revealed to be the most expensive show ever made, Amazon Prime has firmly earned the title of the biggest spender among streaming services.

And it looks like the streaming giant isn't ready to stop anytime soon, as the upcoming sci-fi series Citadel, starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, is rumored to have an insane budget for its first season alone. Here's how much Amazon is spending to bring the story of two agents with erased memories to life.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon spent a whopping $300 million to produce six 40-minute episodes.

That's certainly a lot of money to waste on such a short series, as fans were stunned to learn that one minute of Citadel cost nearly $1.25 million to produce. While the show has the star power to be a big hit, people are already a bit cautious about the end result, with the show's trailer being slammed for looking bland and uninspired. So, if the new series doesn't really look that good, why is Amazon spending so much money?

It looks like behind-the-scenes drama is to blame, as the Russo brothers, who serve as producers on Citadel, decided to fire showrunner Josh Appelbaum in the middle of filming, citing creative differences as the reason for their parting ways.

This resulted in a huge amount of reshoots being needed to fix Russo's original vision of Citadel, which drove the budget to unprecedented heights.

Fans are worried that, with this kind of spending, Amazon Prime may not survive for long, as the critically and commercially failed Rings of Power has already cast a huge shadow on the streaming services's reputation. If Amazon's new expensive venture fails too — and many think Citadel is already doomed to average ratings and reviews — Amazon's producers are going to have a hard time explaining why they wasted so much money on just one season.

Citadel will arrive on Amazon Prime on April 28, 2023.