Spy drama Citadel – featuring Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden in the lead roles – “needs time to grow” in America, according to Amazon Studios’ head of drama series, Odetta Watkins.
The show, made with a reported budget of $185 million, received mixed reviews and is yet to make it to the Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings in the US. But it is Prime Video’s second most watched new original series outside the US.
Watkins, who was one of the speakers at the Banff World Media Festival in Alberta, Canada, said the show’s strong performance in international markets is a victory from “a creative perspective”.
“I think there are so many chapters to this. I think you’ll start to see the audience start to respond differently as it goes on. In the US, we are very jaded and watch everything with a discerning eye, like, ‘Hmm, that (season) wasn’t as good as the last one.’ I just think (Citadel) needs time to grow,” Watkins told entertainment website Variety.
Watkins said that “every show is not going to hit in every place on the same level, but as the franchise grows, I feel like the numbers will grow all over, including domestically.”
The series is getting spinoffs in India and Italy, starring Matilda De Angelis, Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
Alia Bhatt at the Red Sea Film Festival where she spoke about the scale of Alpha Getty Images 
