Amazon approves ‘The Man in the High Castle’ season 3
Amazon appears to have a big hit on the hands with The Man in the High Castle, having a big debut for season 2 and the network quickly renewing the show for a third season.
Joe Lewis, Amazon Studios’ head of comedy and drama, had this to say about the renewal.
“As timely as ever, the exploration of characters at a dark point for humanity has provided incredible stories for two seasons. Eric and his team are doing an incredible job crafting stories about the inner lives of those who struggle to do good in a world that is not. We couldn’t be more excited to bring Season 3 to customers in 2017.”
Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, the the series has found new leadership in Eric Overmyer (Bosch, The Affair), who’ll step up as showrunner.
Frank Spotnitz created The Man in the High Castle and served as showrunner during the first season. Spotnitz suddenly dropped out during production on season two and Amazon Studios chose not to replace him. Instead, the show functioned like “a republic,” as executive producer David Zucker put it.
In terms of numbers, that shake-up didn’t have any ill effect on the series.
The first season of The Man in the High Castle reportedly set a record for the biggest first-weekend debut of any of Amazon’s scripted originals to date; the second season broke that record.
Slash Film summarized some reviews: “The results of that approach seem to have been mixed, at least based on the reviews for season two. While some critics remained very much on board (Collider awarded it four stars out of five, and Indiewire gave it a B+), many others seemed dissatisfied by the turns the show took in its second season. Pajiba described season two as “toilet water” The Verge sighed that it “loses its political edge when we need it most.” But no one despised it more than Vox, which deemed The Man in the High Castle season two “the worst TV show of the year” and specifically blamed the lack of a showrunner for some of the glaring issues.”
The Man in the High Castle stars Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rupert Evans, Stephen Root, DJ Qualls, Joel de la Fuente, Brennan Brown, Bella Heathcote, Callum Keith Rennie, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Rufus Sewell.