Poster for The Man in the High Castle. Photo courtesy of Amazon.
It’s April and we still don’t have a release date for The Man in the High Castle season three. This is a major let down for fans who expected to see the new season drop months ago. For all who don’t know, The Man in the High Castle is an Amazon Prime show that imagines a world where the Axis powers won World War II, and the Nazis and the Japanese now occupy The United States in an alternate 1960’s. Based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, the show is rich in world building and in its incredibly complex and emotive characters. But, then there are the films. The films that show possible other realities, and futures. There’s even a film from our world that shows the Allies winning the war. These films become the MacGuffin of the show, as the different characters race to find them, collect them, and keep them from the enemy; maybe even use them as clues, if they can. Season two ended with the prophecy of one such film being fulfilled. The problem? We still don’t have a season three!
Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crain in Man in the High Castle. Photo courtesy of the Daily Dot.
Season one premiered in January of 2015, while season two premiered in December of 2016. While many had hoped to get the next season around the same time in 2017, a clip from the third season (featured below) premiering at New York Comic Con in October told fans to not expect the season until 2018. Many thought that simply meant January, as a tweet from Joel de la Fuente, who plays Inspector Kido, said they started filming the third season in the last week of June 2017. But January came and went, and there was no further word on when we might expect the third installment of the show. Now it’s April. As fans are more than a little antsy, let’s review everything we know so far about season three to tide us over until that precious announcement of when the third season will grace us with its presence finally arrives.
To begin with, let’s break down that clip they released all the way back in October. A woman with an unusual skin pigmentation lies in some sort of laboratory. John Smith (Rufus Sewell), who seems to be touring the facility, is told that she’s a film courier – meaning those mysterious films we talked about earlier. But then the doctor tells him that she’s from another world. That she has the same skin pigmentation as a woman who died in their custody earlier. Smith is stunned at the idea that there are different versions of every person across what the doctor calls the “multiverse.” He explains that this woman has somehow managed to travel to their world, and that their top scientists are working on finding ways to travel to other worlds as well.
The doctor here finally gives a name to what has been a reality on The Man in the High Castle since episode one – the multiverse. Those familiar with comics probably already understand what this term means, but if you’ve never heard of it before, it’s the idea that there are an infinite number of universes, all variations of the same thing, existing at the same time, but they can’t see each other, and you can’t get from one to another simply by traveling through space. So, there could be a universe where the Nazis won WWII, and a universe where they didn’t, which forms the basis for the show.
My big takeaway from this clip, however, is the tail end of it where the doctor says that they’re working on figuring out how to travel to other worlds as well. This means that if they figure it out, the Nazis could try to then conquer other worlds where they had not originally been successful. This would be a Nazi Germany with the nuclear bomb, and at its peak strength. They could even try to conquer our world. This third season could finally see the two worlds it encompasses come crashing together, and nothing will ever be the same.
In addition to the clip, there are also a few cast announcements. John Hans Tester (Royal Pains), according to Deadline, will be playing the infamous Dr. Joseph Mengele – the doctor we see in the clip. Deadline also reported that Jason O’Mara (Agents of Shield) will be a new series regular playing Wyatt Price, a man who’s been surviving out in the Neutral Zone for years after his Irish family fled west during the war. “But he’s more than just a survivor – he believes in what America was and what the Neutral Zone still is – a melting pot worth saving.” Lastly in casting news, Deadline reported that Michael Gaston (The Leftovers), who had a small recurring role in seasons one and two as Mark Sampson, has been promoted to a series regular. Sampson owns a hardware store and is part of the small secretly practicing Jewish community in San Francisco.
It’s unclear why we haven’t gotten the third season yet, or why we don’t even have an announcement yet of its eventual arrival. All we know is it’s coming. Until then, I’m perfectly content to rewatch seasons one and two obsessively. And, if you haven’t seen them yet, now is your time to start!
7/25/18: The season 3 premier date is October 5th! Let the countdown begin. The series has also been renewed for a fourth season.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks