When Amazon first released their Man in the High Castle pilot back in January, it seemed to match its ambitious premise with pure excellence. Among the round of pilots Amazon released, Flavorwire’s TV editor Pilot Viruet said this was the “most promising” by a “long shot.” The promise was tantalizing, given that audiences didn’t know exactly when — or whether — it’d become a full series. Now, Amazon has released the first trailer for it, indicating that it’ll arrive this fall on Amazon Prime, and its politically horrific plot and aesthetic awe-inducement certainly corroborate early reviews’ approval.
The show is based on Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name, which imagines an outcome to WWII in which the Axis Powers emerged victorious: land to the west of the Rockies is taken over by the Japanese, and the rest of America is seized by Germany. According to /Film, some of the footage in the trailer (below) is from the pilot, but there’s also a lot of new material.
The series is executive produced by Ridley Scott, and stars Rufus Sewell, Luke Kleintank and Alexa Davalos. The X-Files’ Frank Spotnitz wrote it and will serve as showrunner.
Watch the trailer: