James Young Reveals What Inspired Citadel’s Epic Action Sequences and Fight Scene that Didn’t Make the Cut

Citadel is bringing its debut season to a close in thrilling fashion, with a few twists that will have people talking ahead of the show’s upcoming second season. A show all about the world of espionage and technology lends itself to all sorts of epic action sequences, and Citadel’s first season is full of them, with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden leading the charge. From grungy and brutal throwdowns in a small train bathroom to thrilling chase sequences on a snowy mountain, Citadel keeps things interesting throughout the entire season. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to Citadel Stunt Coordinator James Young about the series embracing a dynamic mix of humor, espionage, and brutal close-quarters brawls, and he even revealed a scene that was going to have an additional fight sequence.

Young had the chance to work with The Russos on their adaptation of The Gray Man, but they wanted to shake up the mixture a bit for Citadel. Citadel was initially described as Mission Impossible meets Game of Thrones, though Young also says the show has just a bit of No Country for Old Men as well, which you can definitely see in some of the close-quarters fights.

“I heard about Citadel when I was working with Joe Russo on The Gray Man, and he was talking about the show and it sounded really, really intriguing. And then once we had a break after our filming, David Well got the scripts to me, and it was just so fun. I mean, it was always touted as a Mission Impossible meets Game of Thrones. To have that kind of Mission Impossible style and then I’m trying to be a little bit more violent with the No Country for Old Men style of violence, that’s what was intriguing to me. It was just to be able to play with that, and Pri and Richard are just so much fun to work with, but it’s just in a sense the whole scope and the scripts were so fun with the amnesia, the backstabbing, so it sounded like a blast,” Young said.

The sleekness of the world around Nadia and Mason contrasts well with the visceral battles, but that was baked in from the beginning. That said, there was an aim to make the fights look less choreographed, with more of a focus on the struggle and resourcefulness of those involved.

“Joe’s mandate from the beginning with David was R-rated, No Country for Old Men, kind of more of that struggle in the violence and performance in the violence opposed to an all-out action movie,” Young said. “The fight in a bathroom. It’s less about choreography and more about where you can stick your hands, where you can get leverage on someone. So that’s what we played it to was that you have this sleek world, but the violence, we’re trying to give them that kind of high scope, sleek spy world, but bring the violence down in a little bit more of a real sense. It just allowed us to play with the journey of the character a lot with the bathroom fight with Richard. He doesn’t just walk in and win. It’s a struggle from the beginning, but it allows us to build character throughout the series with these little pieces because again, the fun part of this is it’s two people in one body, in a sense, sharing the same instincts, which is very interesting.”

Even in the bigger sequences, the characters ground themselves and the scenes by continuously conveying the physical toll this all takes on them. Richard in particular does this quite a bit during the mountain chase sequence, but you can find examples throughout the whole show.

“Yeah, that was Joe and David’s thing, and it was Pri and Richard too. Like, we’re going to carry these little injuries, carry this trauma on our bodies because it affects future scenes, it makes it more believable,” Young said. “I mean, case in your point there, the hunter cabin sequence with Pri, after she’s been shot in the leg and been through a lot on the train, then that hunter’s using her bullet wound against her. It’s a reality thing. If you’re trying to kill someone, you’re going to do as much as you can. It’s not just going to be throwing six-punch combinations.”

Speaking of Priyanka and Richard, both stars were up for jumping into as many stunts as they could, especially Priyanka, and that sort of enthusiasm is always appreciated and makes those sequences all the better.

“I always want it. The more you can get from an actor on both the physical and mental side, the better the action’s going to look,” Young said. “If I have to hide the actor’s face 90% of the time, it’s not as fun. So Richard and Pri give their all for these sequences. They really give us ideas for characters and they really come at it collaboratively, and I love both of them. Pri is a firecracker, as you can tell. She’s so good with action, and in a small amount of time, she can pick up everything. She’s that good, and she can move so brilliantly. She has so much intensity, so it allows us to really do a lot with the action with them because they’re willing to do so much. So that’s all we can ask for. It’s not like we have to put a superhero mask on him and hide him. We can literally have Richard and Pri do a lot of this stuff. So I love having it like that.

For Young, while the action is supposed to be thrilling, those action scenes are still supposed to move the characters themselves or their story forward in some way. At one point they had a fight attached to the scene in the kitchen, but the final version was a better way to move the characters and their story along.

“There are always pieces in the fight that you do that you’re like, oh, that’s cool choreography, or that’s a cool move, or that’s a great stunt. But at the end of the day, for us, it’s what serves the story better,” Young said. “When we design action sequences, we’re always looking to, by the end of it, you should know more about the character and story, even though it’s an action sequence, it’s a fight, it’s a physical confrontation. You should know more. It should accelerate everything. So that was, we got lucky with it. Even being on a tight schedule sometimes really helps you. You have to narrow things in. So we were kind of very targeted. But I think, yeah, it was kind of that little kitchen fight. We had a really fun kitchen fight planned, but at the end of the day, it’s way better to do the scene that they did. It just makes so much more sense.”

You can catch the season finale of Citadel today on Amazon Video. Citadel has already been renewed by Amazon for season 2, though no release date has been revealed.

What did you think of Citadel? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things TV and streaming with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!