Comic-Con: Amazon's 'The Man in the High Castle' Gets Haunting New Trailer
What’s more fascinating than studying actual history? How about pondering “What if?” alternate histories — as in, “What if America lost the Revolutionary War?” or “What if Dewey really did defeat Truman?” For its upcoming drama The Man in the High Castle, Amazon Studios poses an even grander question: What if the Axis powers emerged victorious from World War II?
That’s the fascinating, fear-inducing alternate timeline that celebrated sci-fi author Philip K. Dick dreamed up for his 1962 novel, and which is brought to chilling life in this new trailer for the series. Set in the early ‘60s after the Allies fell, the show takes place in a United States that’s been divvied up between Germany and Japan. That’s why the stars on Old Glory’s stars-and-stripes pattern have been replaced by a Nazi symbol, while the Japanese flag is emblazoned on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
But even within these fascist states, pockets of resistance still exist. In New York, for example, Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) enlists with one such group, though not for the noblest of reasons. Meanwhile, across the continent in the Bay Area, Juliana Crane (Alexa Davalos) comes into possession of a film reel that depicts a reality much closer to our own, where the Allies crushed the Axis.
Written by former X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz and produced by Ridley Scott, The Man in the High Castle was one of the pilots that Amazon debuted in January for viewer feedback. (That episode is still available to stream for Amazon Prime members.) It quickly became the most-watched pilot that the studio had produced, so it’s no surprise that it received a full season pick-up. And based on this trailer, it’s an alternate history we may want to ponder for a few seasons more.
The Man in the High Castle will premiere on Amazon this fall.
