Why Mason Kane From Citadel Looks So Familiar

Be gone, Bond. Back off, Bourne. A new, super-suave secret agent has landed on Prime Video, and he's backed by an equally lethal lady in the new series "Citadel." Not that he'd know, of course. After a mission goes sideways, our pair of heroes, Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra), get separated and seemingly killed in action. Unfortunately, the two are very much alive but have no memory of the life they led, which involved killing droves of henchmen and walking away from explosions in an orderly fashion. 

Not to worry, however. The man in the chair with his ear to the spy underground, Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), manages to track Kane down and get him back into the spy business he didn't know he was in. Mission accomplished. Kind of. 

As with every spy, bringing a hero of Kane's caliber to the screen requires some charm. A presence that screams, "Don't worry, I've got this," in an overly expensive suit. Thankfully they found just the man for the job, who already has a fairly hefty list of heroic credentials. From wooing princesses and diffusing bombs to holding his own against a squad of superheroes, this guy has done it all. But there's no denying that Madden's most iconic role just had audiences seeing red.

Plenty of stars were born on "Game of Thrones," the TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin's beloved book series, but Richard Madden ducked out fairly early in the long-running series. Madden played Robb Stark, the oldest of the Stark children and one of the first significant casualties in the family after Ned lost his head. A noble and brave leader, he was killed off in Season 2 in one of the most shocking twists in television history.

Every "Game of Thrones" fan remembers the night they first heard "The Rains of Castermere" play at the Red Wedding, as one of the show's most hopeful heroes was turned into a human pin cushion. Rewatching that iconic scene for GQ, Madden recalled just how inconvenient it was to be shot with a collection of crossbow bolts. "Those arrows were all sticking in me for days," he recalled. "Just trying to have a coffee, and you'd knock everything out." 

For Madden, it was an experience that lingered after he left the set for the last time. "I rushed to get on the last flight to London," he said. "I remember being on this flight back to London covered in blood, exhausted and just sobbing very loudly on the plane and people looking at me quite strangely because it looked like I just murdered someone and got on a flight which in fact I hadn't, I'd been murdered."

Back when Disney remakes didn't feel quite so frequent, Richard Madden took on the difficult task of playing the charming royal love interest who depends on footwear to establish a future marriage. In Kenneth Branagh's live-action version of "Cinderella," Madden plays Prince Kit opposite Lily James' Ella, the downtrodden but good-hearted step-daughter to the worst family in town, who takes the night off and meets her true love before escaping in a pumpkin.

As fantastical as this well-known story might be, director Kenneth Branagh — a filmmaker who has handled so many Shakespearean tales in the past — handled it with the same consideration as with the likes of "Macbeth." Modern royals were even examined in how they handled their duties. "When you put all that into it, hopefully, you end up with a fleshed-out character that is a bit more real," Madden told Collider. "I had to get rid of a bit of a swagger. I had to walk properly. The Prince doesn't strut about. He has good posture."

Among the brilliant collection of British shows that have ensnared audiences beyond its shores, "Bodyguard" was another entry that became a massive success worldwide after appearing on Netflix. Madden was a huge factor in the show's popularity as Police Sergeant David Budd, a hero who stops train bombings on his day off long before "The Night Agent" made it look cool. Assigned to protect Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), Budd soon picks up the threads of a terrorist conspiracy that he and his new assignment become entangled in.

Spanning only six episodes in its first season, the show received immense critical praise. It earned the green light for a second season, reaching a level even its leading man didn't anticipate. "I kept waiting for it to stop working and fall apart, but it didn't," Madden told Deadline following the show's release. "Next thing I know, I'm in Los Angeles talking to people about this show that we'd shot in London. I thought it was just going to be a good BBC show, but it's got much longer legs than that." Currently, there are no confirmed dates for the second season of "Bodyguard," and the only hint that it's still on the cards is a tweet from creator Jed Mercurio. Budd will have to watch his back again soon enough.

Following the massive success of Freddie Mercury's biopic, "Bohemian Rhapsody," Elton John was the next icon to be sent to the silver screen in "Rocketman." Starring alongside Taron Egerton as the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Elton John, Madden played his manager and former lover, John Reid, who had a tumultuous relationship behind closed doors with his client. All of this was brilliantly highlighted thanks to Egerton and Madden's brilliant chemistry. 

The film focuses on Elton's dealings with drug and alcohol abuse while trying to be open about his sexuality. This leads to severe friction and borderline manipulation on Reid's part. Even though biopics have often been risky territory to venture into, Madden chose to ignore that. "I don't go in with any expectation, I think I was too terrified of the enormity of it all," Madden explained to Entertainment Weekly. "I just go in going, 'Let's get through each day.' And then I got to the end of each of them going, this couldn't have been a better day." After all that, he's still standing.

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In the post-"Avengers: Endgame" era, some brave entries made it into the MCU, including one that spanned thousands of years and saw two "Game of Thrones" stars sort of reunited. Chloe Zhao's "Eternals" tells the story of god-like beings that have witnessed the dawn and progression of humanity. Among the ranks is Richard Madden as a dedicated and duplicitous stranger from the stars, Ikaris, who ends up causing trouble for the other heroes of this comic book adaptation. It made an exciting break from routine for Madden, who heroically handled the Superman-like character (his Westeros "brother" from another mother, Kit Harington, also shows up in the film).

The daring twist is that Madden's initially noble leader becomes someone bent on Earth's destruction, leading his former allies to fight back against him. As with many MCU villains, good triumphs and saves the day — but where does that leave Madden's character in the future should the "Eternals" return? ComicBook.com dared to ask the former god if there was any chance of Ikaris making a comeback, to which Madden gave a very frank response: "Well, he flew into the sun. That's kind of hard to come back from, isn't it?"