Amazon not only set a release date for “The Man in the High Castle” Season 3 Saturday at its Comic-Con 2018 panel, it also revealed the show has already been renewed for Season 4.
Producer Isa Hackett, daughter of author Philip K. Dick, revealed at the panel that pre-production has begun on Season 4 of the adaptation of Dick’s novel of the same name, which imagines a world in which the Axis powers prevailed in World War II, and the United States has been split between Third Reich and Japanese control.
The show includes storylines that focus on the growing political tensions between Japan and Germany over control of the U.S., as well as Americans who choose to join the Greater Reich (like Rufus Sewell’s character, John Smith) and those who join the underground resistance against the occupiers (like Alex Davalos’ character, Juliana Crain).
The panel also set the release date for “The Man in the High Castle” Season 3 for Oct. 5, a date Hackett said was significant, but didn’t say why. Given the political themes of resistance in the show, it might be a reference to the upcoming 2018 U.S. midterm elections.
Fans also were treated to new footage during the panel that suggests the next season will amp up the science fiction aspects of the show significantly. The footage shows the Nazis, and nearby hidden resistance fighters such as Juliana and new series lead James O’Mara, researching a thing they call “the anomaly.” Apparently, it’s a bridge between parallel universes, a concept explored in the original novel.
Panelists said the Nazis are trying to find a way to travel to the alternate realities — including ones where they didn’t win World War II, like ours. Davalos suggested her character might even meet alternate reality versions of herself in Season 3, and that the Nazis are hoping to conquer the parallel universes.
Hackett also said the third season will include new aspects that actually come from a sequel novel to “The Man in the High Castle,” one that Dick did not finish writing before he died in 1982.