The Man in the High Castle is an American dystopian alternate history television series created for the streaming service Amazon Prime Video, depicting a parallel universe in which the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan rule the world after their victory in World War II. It was created by Frank Spotnitz and produced by Amazon Studios, Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions (with Scott as executive producer), Headline Pictures, Electric Shepherd Productions, and Big Light Productions. It is based on the 1962 novel The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.
The pilot premiered in January 2015, and Amazon ordered a ten-episode season the following month which was released in November. A second season of ten episodes premiered in December 2016, and a third season was released on October 5, 2018. The fourth and final season premiered on November 15, 2019.
Setting
The Man in the High Castle is set in 1962 in an alternate history in which the Axis powers have won World War II in 1946 after Giuseppe Zangara assassinates the president-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1933. A series of developments follow that include the Germans dropping a nuclear weapon on Washington, D.C. (now renamed "District of Contamination") in late 1945. The Japanese launch a ground invasion of the U.S. West Coast. The American federal government surrenders, though it takes another year for the Axis and their American collaborators to pacify the country. The Germans build concentration camps for the enslavement and eventual extermination of Jewish Americans and African Americans and commit massacres in cities such as Cincinnati.
By 1962, the German Reich extends to Europe and Africa and the Empire of Japan comprises Asia and Oceania, but most of the series is set in the former U.S. and in Germany proper. Adolf Hitler is dictator of this German Reich, and the emperor of Japan rules most of the rest of the world. Although the real-world Axis included Fascist Italy under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, only the Japanese and German factions of the Axis are depicted. There are no Italians in the scenario, nor is Mussolini accounted for, except as an image in one of the mysterious newsreels with the Führer.
Western North America, the "Japanese Pacific States", is occupied by the technologically less advanced Shōwa-era Empire of Japan, which has imposed its hierarchical society on their part of the former United States. The Empire treats non-Japanese as subjects with fewer rights and little prospect of advancement in Imperial society, although some upper-class Japanese are fascinated by pre-war American culture. Japan's trade and science ministers work in the Pacific States' capital, San Francisco, California. The Yakuza wield extensive influence in Japanese America and are largely tolerated by the Kempeitai. In season 4, an organization calling itself the Black Communist Rebellion takes up arms against the Japanese, gaining ground as the Empire's strength wanes.
Eastern and Midwestern North America is a colony controlled by the Greater Nazi Reich (GNR) under an aging Hitler. Headed by a " of North America", it is commonly referred to as "Nazi America" or "the American Reich" and its capital is New York City, which survived the war and invasion largely intact. The Nazis continue to hunt minorities and kill the physically and mentally ill. Fictional developments of 1960s technology, such as video phones, live surveillance video (CCTV), and supersonic airliners that were technologically available in the 1960s but never commercially produced, are seen in the series.
Japan and Germany have left the Rocky Mountains to serve as a buffer zone between the Japanese Pacific States and Nazi America due to Cold War–like tensions between the two powers. The Neutral Zone has no substantial government, economy, or armed forces, and is left to fend for itself while the two rival empires pursue their ambitions. Resistance groups use the Neutral Zone as a haven and the Germans and Japanese intermittently send spies into the region, both to monitor the Neutral Zone and each other.
Films collected by the "Man in the High Castle" are newsreels depicting numerous other Earths, including some where the Allies were victorious, some featuring executed Allied leaders (such as Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin), and some where an American resistance is doing well. The events depicted include real history and possible alternative timelines.
Cast Main Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crain, a young woman from San Francisco who is outwardly happy living under Japanese control. She is an expert in and is friendly with the Japanese people who live in San Francisco. As Juliana learns of the Man in the High Castle and his films, she begins to rebel. Rupert Evans as Frank Frink (seasons 1–3), Juliana's boyfriend. He works in a factory creating replicas of prewar American pistols, and creates original jewelry and sketches on his own time. Frank's grandfather was Jewish, making him a target of discrimination. When Juliana vanishes just after the police kill her sister, Frank is taken into custody. Soon after, he turns against the state and works with the American Resistance. Luke Kleintank as Joe Blake (seasons 1–3), a new recruit to the underground American Resistance who is actually an agent working for the Schutzstaffel (SS), under John Smith. He transports a reel of the forbidden film The Grasshopper Lies Heavy to the neutral Rocky Mountain States as part of his mission to infiltrate the Resistance. He meets Juliana and quickly falls in love with her, leading to him questioning his allegiance to the Reich. DJ Qualls as Ed McCarthy (seasons 1–3), Frank's co-worker and friend. He closely follows politics and cares very much about Juliana and Frank's well-being. It is revealed in season three that Ed is gay. Joel de la Fuente as Colonel Takeshi Kido, the chief inspector who is the ruthless head of the stationed in San Francisco Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Nobusuke Tagomi (seasons 1–3), the Trade Minister of the Japanese Pacific States. His true loyalties are ambiguous throughout the first season. Rufus Sewell as John Smith, an SS , later promoted to , and then to of the colony of North America (near series end becoming Reichsführer of a newly autonomous North American Reich) who is investigating the Resistance in New York. He is a natural-born American who had served in the US Army Signal Corps before taking the Reich's offer to join them. He initially lives a comfortable suburban life with a wife and three children but subsequently moves the family to Manhattan. Chelah Horsdal as Helen Smith, John Smith's wife and a socialite in New York City. A natural-born American before the war, she plays an enormous role in John Smith switching allegiance to the Nazis. She later faces a crisis about the consequences of that decision when her own son gives his life for the regime and her whole world collapses. Brennan Brown as Robert Childan, an antique store owner who makes secret deals with Frank Callum Keith Rennie as Gary Connell (season 2), leader of the West Coast Resistance movement and enforcer for Abendsen Bella Heathcote as Nicole Dörmer (seasons 2–3), a young Berlin-born filmmaker who crosses paths with Joe, and moves to the American Reich in the third season Michael Gaston as Mark Sampson (seasons 1–3), a Jewish friend of Frank's living in San Francisco, who later relocates to the Neutral Zone Jason O'Mara as Wyatt Price, also known as Liam (seasons 3–4), an Irishman who is a black market supplier of information to Juliana Frances Turner as Bell Mallory (season 4), the leader of the Black Communist Rebellion (BCR) in San Francisco
Recurring Greater Nazi Reich Officials Aaron Blakely as Erich Raeder (seasons 1–3), an , John Smith's right-hand man Carsten Norgaard as Rudolph Wegener (seasons 1, 3), a disillusioned high-ranking Nazi official who trades secrets with Tagomi and is friends with John Smith Bernhard Forcher as Hugo Reiss (season 1), the German ambassador to the Japanese Pacific States Aubrey Deeker as Kurt Scausch (season 1), a member of the SS working alongside Hugo Reiss Neal Bledsoe as SS-Captain Connolly (season 1), an American SS officer serving under John Smith, later revealed to be a spy working for Reinhard Heydrich Raresh DiMofte as Karl Müller (season 1), a who was sent to San Francisco in order to assassinate the Japanese crown prince to provoke a war between the GNR and JPS Sebastian Roché as Martin Heusmann (seasons 2–3), a high-ranking in the Nazi government and Joe Blake's biological father Adrian Hough as Carl Weber (season 3), the Nazi ambassador to the JPS, replacing Hugo Reiss Eric Lange as General Whitcroft (season 4), John Smith's second-in-command Marc Rissmann as Wilhelm Goertzmann (season 4), an from Berlin
Civilians Jessie Fraser as Rita Pearce (seasons 1–2), Joe's lover, who leaves him after finding out about Juliana Carter Ryan Evancic as Buddy Pearce (seasons 1–2), Rita's son, who viewed Joe as a surrogate father Kevin McNulty as Dr. Gerald Adler (seasons 1–2), John's family doctor who diagnosed Thomas Gillian Barber as Alice Adler (seasons 2–3), Gerald's wife, who begins to become paranoid of the Smiths Emily Holmes as Lucy Collins (seasons 2–3), a friend of Helen's and Juliana's Kurt Evans as Henry Collins (season 2), Lucy's husband, who was executed during a broadcast for revealing Hitler's death Giles Panton as Billy Turner (seasons 3–4), a Nazi Reich American advertising executive who is working with Nicole Dörmer to erase the memories of the former U.S. from the minds of the citizens in the Nazi Reich America Laura Mennell as Thelma Harris (season 3), a closeted lesbian gossip column reporter in New York City Jeffrey Nordling as Daniel Ryan (season 3), a Jungian therapist employed to treat Helen Smith's grief following the death of her son Thomas Diane Greenwood as Fatima Hassan (season 3), a traveler from a parallel world who was captured by the Nazis Charlie Hofheimer as Daniel Levine (season 4), John's Jewish friend who was executed after the Nazis took over America. In the alt-world, he is alive. Rachel Nichols as Martha (season 4), Helen Smith's "wife-companion" assigned by the Reich to keep an eye on her
John Smith's family/household Quinn Lord as Thomas Smith, John and Helen's son and the eldest child. A member of the Hitler Youth, it is later revealed that he has inherited a form of muscular dystrophy (facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy) from his father's side of the family. Learning this, he turns himself in to the Reich Sanitation Services and is euthanized. In season 4, Lord plays Thomas in an alternate universe in which the Axis lost the war. Genea Charpentier as Jennifer Smith, John and Helen's daughter Gracyn Shinyei as Amy Smith, John and Helen's daughter and youngest child Meg Heus as Bridget (seasons 3–4), a maid of the Smiths in their new apartment
Rudolph Wegener's family Stefanie von Pfetten as Kathrina Wegener (seasons 1–2), Rudolph's ex-wife Jara Zeimer as Klaudia Wegener (season 1), Rudolph and Kathrina's daughter Luke Roessler as Otto Wegener (season 1), Rudolph and Kathrina's son, who has an estranged relationship with his father
Japanese Pacific States Officials Lee Shorten as Hiroyuki Yoshida (seasons 1–2), a sergeant and Inspector Kido's right-hand man Arnold Chun as Kotomichi, Tagomi's aide-de-camp, who came from the parallel world after his hometown, Nagasaki, was destroyed by an American atomic bomb Daisuke Tsuji as the Crown Prince of Japan (season 1) Mayumi Yoshida as the Crown Princess of Japan (seasons 1, 4) Amy Okuda as Christine Tanaka (season 1), an office worker working in the Nippon Building Tzi Ma as General Hidehisa Onoda (season 2), a leading member of the Japanese Army