James R | On 07, Nov 2016

The Man in the High Castle returns next month – and Amazon has now released the opening scene of Season 2 online.

The video, which dips us back into life in a post-WWII world where the Axis Powers won, is an instant reminder of how eerily everyday its Nazi-run universe is – a place where Thomas Smith (Quinn Lord) leads his high school class in the pledging of allegiance to the Nazi party and nobody bats an eyelid.

While Germany controls much of the East Coast and Japan controls the West Coast, the Rocky Mountains have become a “neutral zone” — and ground zero for a resistance, led by a mysterious figure known only as “The Man in the High Castle”. While some citizens struggle against the fear, oppression and inequality, others accept their lives, as compromised and unfulfilling as they might be. But after a series of enigmatic films surface depicting a world vastly different from their own, some begin to question the very nature of their reality.

Warning: Spoilers for Season 1

Season 2 resumes with Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) facing the consequences of her decision to betray the Resistance and allow Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), a suspected Nazi agent, to escape the Pacific States with a film originally bound for the Man in the High Castle. Joe himself returns a hero to the Reich and finds himself thrust into the Nazi capital of Berlin, face to face with the father who abandoned him. Meanwhile, Frank Frink (Rupert Evans) becomes increasingly radicalised and drawn further into the resistance after seeing images of his own execution in the mysterious films.

With political tensions mounting between Germany and Japan, Trade Minister Tagomi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) begins to regret his success in smuggling nuclear technology from the Reich and seeks solace in the strange new world he discovered at the end of Season 1. Meanwhile, Obergruppenführer John Smith (Rufus Sewell) struggles to reconcile the values of the Reich with the deteriorating health of his son — all while tasked with a mission from the Fuhrer for which failure is not an option. And Chief Inspector Kido (Joel De La Fuente) begins to take greater interest in the Man in the High Castle, the films, and how Juliana Crain is connected to it all.

Spoilers end

All episodes of The Man in the High Castle Season 2 are available on Amazon Prime Video on 16th December, as part of a £5.99 monthly subscription.

 

The Man in the High Castle Season 2: The first trailer

10th October 2016

Amazon has released the first trailer for Season 2 of The Man in the High Castle – and things look to be getting bigger, bolder and deadlier.

The show, which returns in December, was one of the best programmes of 2015 and Amazon’s most-watched original, answering the provocative question of what would happen if the Axis Powers won World War II. That alternate reality is as eerie as ever in this first glimpse of the show’s second run, which begins in typically unsettling fashion with Marilyn Monroe singing happy birthday to a very familiar person… but not the one you think.

All episodes of The Man in the High Castle Season 2 will premiere on Friday 16th December.

 

The Man in the High Castle Season 2 will premiere in December – and feature the man himself

8th August 2016

The Man in the High Castle Season 2 will officially arrive in December 2016, the show’s executive producers have confirmed.

The show’s second run will premiere on Friday 16th December, just in time for heart-warming family viewing – presuming your family like speculating about alternate history timelines in which the Axis Powers won World War II.

Based on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel, the show swiftly became Amazon’s most-watched original show last year, but has since found itself without a showrunner, with Frank Spotnitz departing in May 2016. The exec producers, who were part of a panel for the show at Amazon’s Television Critics Association event, said that the departure hadn’t impacted the show adversely.

EP David Zucker, who was there alongside cast members Lyke Kleintank, Alexa Davalos, Rupert Evans, Joel de la Fuente, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Rufus Sewell, plus fellow EP Isa Dick Hackett, draught of Philip K. Dick,
told the press “nothing has changed with the ensemble of this show” and that the team is continuing in the direction laid out by Spotnitz, who remains an EP on the project. There hadn’t been “some kind of coup”, he added.

“We are running in many ways like a republic,” he continued, saying the show’s chain of command was “unique”.

“There are sort of senior powers in sort of every aspect of (the show) that Frank put in place. No one would choose to build a show this way, (but) at this point we have, I think, a system that is working as good as we can make it, and we will continue to find ways to improve it.”

Some details have already been revealed about Season 2, but the panel confirmed that Bella Heathcote’s character, Nicole, will be a love interest for Joe Blake (Kleintank). Other information was vague, although they did confirm that the eponymous Man in the High Castle himself will be introduced: author Hawthorne Abendsen.

 

Tate Donovan joins The Man in the High Castle Season 2

30th July

Tate Donovan has joined the cast of The Man in the High Castle for Season 2.

Amazon’s original drama, which was one of our top TV shows of 2015, swiftly became one of its most-watched shows, thanks to its provocative premise that asks what the world would be like if we lost World War II.

It was no surprise, then, that the alt-history series, based on Philip K Dick’s novel, was renewed for a second season. There is still no official word on an air date for the second season – Frank Spotnitz stepped down as showrunner earlier this year, sending production into temporary hiatus – and its plot is also tightly under wraps, but Deadline reports that Donovan will play George Dixon “a mysterious figure from Juliana’s past”.

Exec Producer David Zucker also revealed at Comic-Con that Season 2 will involve a growing Cold War between the Japanese and the Nazis, with Bella Heathcote also joining the ensemble as Nicole Becker, a Berlin-born filmmaker.

Donovan, who was last seen in Elvis & Nixon (snapped up by Amazon for Prime Video streaming in the US), will be a recurring presence in the show.

You can see the trailer for Season 2 and producer Ridley Scott’s introduction from Comic-Con below.

Watch: The Man in the High Castle Season 2 trailer and Ridley Scott intro

22nd July 2016

Amazon has released a trailer for The Man in the High Castle Season 2, along with an introduction by Ridley Scott.

The show, which is based on Philip K. Dick’s alternate history novel, examines what would happen in a world where the Axis Powers won World War II. The result was one of our top TV shows of 2015, not least because of an excellent turn from Rufus Sewell as John Smith, an American-born Nazi who hunts down members of a resistance against the Third Reich. (You can read our interview with him here.)

In Season 2, Smith will be joined by a new face: Berlin-born filmmaker Nicole Becker, played by Bella Heathcote. Heathcote and Sewell were both at Comic Con, where Amazon unveiled the glimpse of the series’ second season.

Speaking to the press in a session before the panel for the fans, Heathcote said she researched Leni Riefenstahl.

“She’s a documentary filmmaker, she’s a Nazi-ish. I think she’s more into her films than she is into Nazi ideals,” she commented, noting that she represents second-generation Nazis, who don’t hold the movement’s ideals as strongly as the first-generation Nazis.

Sewell praised his character before highlighting how people can delude themselves into being the hero of the story in real life. “[He] believes he’s a decent guy — he’s wrong as fuck — but he’s managed to come up with a narrative, as people do”.

“Who would he had been if Hitler hadn’t become Chancellor in 1933? What would he have done? Who would he be? Would he be a good man? Would he be a bad man? Who’s the Smith that existed in our world?”

The line between the show’s alternate universe and our world became blurred at the end of Season 1, thanks to the actions of Tahomi. Will the show offer answers to the mysteries of the finale?

“I was looking for such an answer in the first episode to why that happened,” Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who plays Tagomi, told the panel, adding Season 2 would answer questions by “not overblowing it and letting it work itself through several episodes and build through another dimension”.

Exec Producer David Zucker added that Season 2 will also follow a growing Cold War between the Japanese and the Nazis.

Here’s the trailer – and, above it, a intro from Exec Producer Ridley Scott:

Ridley Scott Intro

The Man in the High Castle Season 2 Trailer

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