Creators of The Man in the High Castle: there are 'deeply disturbing' parallels

When the first season of Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle arrived last year neither the Democrats nor the Republicans were close to selecting a presidential candidate. Although there was a sense of impending upheaval following two terms of Barack Obama, the show’s alternative history didn’t feel quite as relevant as its second season does now. The series, based on the 1962 novel by Philip K Dick, imagines America in the years following second world war under the premise that the Allies lost. Germany holds control of the eastern half of the US and Japan holds the west. Fascism, based largely on racial discrimination and repression of free thought, reigns. As season two arrives 16 December, there is a sense that this fictional world may adhere more closely to our own than we initially suspected.

“The book is decidedly anti-fascist,” says Isa Hackett Dick, an executive producer on the series (and the daughter of the author). “It’s a cautionary tale of sorts. My father was famously known for being vocal about needing to always be vigilant about fascism and looking out for it. It’s interesting in the time that we’re in, particularly hearing rhetoric that sounds fascist, that we’re making this show.”

Season one set up the world of The Man in the High Castle, one where Hitler is still in power and everyday citizens are executed for being Jewish. There are those who follow the rigidity of the system and play by the rules, and those who oppose the fascist regimes. Censorship, particularly of the news media, is at play. Information is controlled by the government. As the writers began work on season two last December, the primary campaigns were heating up. Production on the second season wrapped at the end of the September, just before the shock election result.

It’s hard to imagine that Donald Trump and his rhetoric, which often panders to far-right views, wasn’t on the writers’ minds as the episodes unfolded. Since his election to office, Trump has attempted to undermine and control the news media, and has attacked and criticized those who don’t agree with him or depict him in a positive light. That all sounds familiar. The producers won’t comment on Trump specifically, but they do feel the show is reflecting America today in some ways.

“It’s undeniable,” executive producer David W Zucker says. “You can look at so many components globally or quite specifically that are profoundly resonant with things we’re struggling with today. There’s deeply disturbing parts of the normalization racism and repression and injustice and torture and things we’re seeing domestically and internationally on the show. Those are very much part of the world we’re dramatizing.”

For Zucker, as well as the rest of the producers and writers, The Man in the High Castle isn’t simply about power. It’s about whether people are capable of resisting the evils that come along with that power. In other words, is our desire to control others inherent? “This show is something that is all about exploring human existence,” Zucker notes. “Part of what this story is exploring is how much of this is endemic to who we are as human beings.”

Season two grapples with this idea even further. Now that the stage is set, the writers have been able to give each character new places to go. They can deal with new challenges and explore new facets of this alternative reality. Will they resist the fascist powers and find a way to the freedom that America actually achieved following the war? And is that sort of liberty possible at all?

It’s through these very human characters that we, as viewers, are able to uncover what it might be like to live in a time where the Nazis were still in power. Amazon has yet to announce a third season, although Zucker and Dick are hopeful, and it seems inevitable that the Trump ascension of power will impact the storyline and its themes in some way – especially if he continues to display behavior that has fascist tendencies. But, of course, those at the helm of The Man in the High Castle have found themselves making these sorts of relevant comparisons almost accidentally.

“You can never predict those things and you certainly don’t write toward that end, but it was a bit staggering to see how things were evolving while we were dealing with some of the stories that we were aiming to tell,” Zucker says of the show’s themes, which stay as true as possible to its source material. “Some of the firsthand experiences and the intensity of feeling that arising by what’s transpiring in our world today will undoubtedly affect some of the insights that the writers bring to these stories. It has emotional effect, not to mention an informative one, as we’re living through some aspects of what we’re exploring on the show.”

The Man in the High Castle doesn’t necessarily have any easy answers. It looks at why and how people acquire power, and what they do to retain it. It pushes the viewer to consider whether it’s essential to act against fascism and stand up for freedom. Now, as the freedoms of some Americans feel threatened, that is especially poignant. It means you are not simply entertained by television, but instead encouraged to find your own ideas and voice. If we continue down the current path, where will it lead us? Do you have the potential to change anything? Do you want to?

“When you’re telling a piece that’s historically set, even as an alternative history, you’re always looking for material that has modern day relevance and can help us with that perspective,” Zucker says. “It can help us understand who we are and how we got to this place that we’re in and what possibly we could do to affect our own futures going forward.”