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More The Man in the High Castle in Vancouver this summer. Amazon renewed the alt-timeline drama for a third season with Eric Overmyer as the new showrunner. It starts filming [late June] in metro Vancouver and is expected to wrap mid-October. Creator Frank Sponitz parted ways with High Castle midway through season 2, leading to a couple of unexpected production shutdowns in Vancouver and a much longer shooting schedule last year.
But all’s well that streams well. Amazon said streaming of season 2 the weekend before Christmas was the best weekend debut of any of its scripted original series to date.
Based on Philip K. Dick’s award-winning novel, The Man in the High Castle imagines an alternate reality circa 1962 where the Japanese and Germans won World War II and divided the United States into three regions — the west coast as the Japanese Pacific States, the Rockies as a neutral zone and the east coast as the Greater Nazi Reich. In season one, Juliana Crain (Alexa Davolos) from the west coast bonded with New York double agent Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) in the neutral zone where they gave up their copies of a subversive film to the resistance. Both returned home to opposite coasts. Juliana to her boyfriend Frank Frink (Rupert Evans) in San Francisco who’d suffered at the hands of the Japanese in her absence and Joe to his boss American SS Obergruppenführer John Smith (Rufus Sewell) in New York City. When a new film surfaces, Joe is sent to San Francisco to reconnect with Juliana and she ends up giving him the film rather than see him die.
In the second season, Juliana (Davalos) is in trouble with the Resistance after giving the latest film to Joe, meets the Man in the High Castle himself (Stephen Root), and seeks asylum in the Greater Nazi Reich in order to find a key figure in one of the films. There she lives under Obergruppenführer John Smith (Sewell)’s protection and is invited into his family. Joe, believing Juliana is dead, ends up in Berlin with his father Reichsminister Heusmann (Sebastian Roché). Not everyone survived season 2.
Juliana escapes the wrath of the resistance and seeks asylum in the Greater Nazi Reich.
Filmed on the Main Mall at the University of British Columbia.
Related: Man In the High Castle on UBC’s Main Mall.
Related: The Man In the High Castle’s Callum Keith Rennie & Rick Worthy in Chinatown.
Juliana comes under SS Obergruppenführer John Smith’s protection and is welcomed into his family. Chelah Horsdall is his formidable wife Helen Smith.
Shaughnessy home as Smith family residence.
The resistance continues to hunt her, even in New York.
Filmed at Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station.
S2 #highcastle #themaninthehighcastle #mithc #julianacrain #setlife @HighCastleTV @AmazonVideo pic.twitter.com/IwKAmUZ8U9
— Alexa Davalos (@alexaKdavalos) May 18, 2016
Related: The Man in the High Castle’s Alexa Davalos at Pacfic Central Station.
Until she connects with resistance fighter George Dixon (Tate Donovan), who is Trudy’s father and the dead Nazi soldier from the film.
Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon as New York’s Central Park.
Dixon gives her the mission of getting close to their number one target, Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith.
At work, SS Obergruppenführer John Smith orders Joe to Berlin to be with his father Reichsminister Heusmann (Sebastian Roché)
Hitler’s office. Set in CBC Vancouver.
Luke Kleintank as Joe Blake. He escapes from the west coast on a boat with the film.
Filmed at Eagle Harbour in West Vancouver with huge SPFX explosion.
The Nazis blow up the boat once Luke and the film are aboard.
Joe returns to New York until he is summoned to Berlin by his high-ranking Nazi father Reichsminister Heusmann (Sebastian Roché).
Joe at his father’s house in Berlin played by Vancouver’s Hycroft, University Women’s Club.
Bella Heathcote as Berlin-born Nicole Becker
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Reprisals in Vancouver’s Arch Alley.
Vancouer’s Arch Alley.
A beautiful shot from our set today. Thanks for the snap, Jenna Gouchey! #mithc #themaninthehighcastle @HighCastleTV pic.twitter.com/xepgqI5ZJF
— Frank Spotnitz (@FrankSpotnitz) May 7, 2016
Joe de la Fuente as Inspector Quido. Lee Shorten is Sergeant Hiroyuki Yoshida.
Frank Frink blows up Kempeitai HQ, filmed at Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Trade Minister Nobusuke Tagomi, who travels to our reality where the Allied forces won WWII.
Juliana meets the Man in the High Castle again. Filmed at Britannia Heritage Shipyard Park.
Streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
The Man in the High Castle season 3 starts filming [June 26th] and wraps five months later on October 17th (dates subject to change), according to the Directors Guild of Canada-BC Production List.