Before I delve into the panel at SDCC and the trailer, I want to give a huge thank you to @nerdeeklife for live tweeting it.
As I sat down to put my thoughts together (with High Castle, there are always a million different thoughts running along side each other—sort of like the multiverse!), I decided to organize them into three parts:
Takeaways from the panel
Takeaways from the trailer
Thoughts, theories, and questions
Takeaways from the panel
- Smith is in a difficult, dark place and commits even further to the Reich. He finds out about the multiverse, and it becomes an obsession (remember the clip from NYCC? The expression on his face says it all).
- The resistance plays a prominent role.
- When asked to describe Season 3 in three words during his takeover of @AmazonVideo IG stories, Jason O’Mara said, “Resistance. Twists. Turns.”
- Juliana becomes a leader and a fighter within the resistance.
- We will see a lot more of the neutral zone (I mean, it goes without saying since the Resistance will be heavily featured throughout S3).
- There will be a larger sci-fi element because of the multiverse.
- We’ll learn more about Hawthorne.
- High Castle has been renewed for a 4th season!
Takeaways from the trailer
- The Pacific States are mobilizing their Navy (you can see the Yamato with a fleet of ships near the golden gate bridge).
- There is a fuel/gas shortage in the Pacific States, and it is so bad that the citizens are protesting and lashing out against their occupiers.
- A lot of action involving Juliana and the resistance (guns and explosions).
- The Reich has a multiverse machine of some sort that Juliana wants to destroy.
- Joe says something in favor of the Reich expanding in one flash, and in another, he’s taking a swing at Smith’s aid, Erich Raeder.
- Smith is rewarded for his actions in S2. Smith is shocked beyond belief at the end of the trailer.
- Juliana is in a prison cell.
Thoughts, theories, and questions
I don’t even know where to begin. After two years of silence, we were showered with news, clues, and clips of Season 3 all within the span of an hour!
I knew Smith would get obsessed with the multiverse from the clip shown at NYCC. My theories for him still stand.
At the panel, Alexa Davalos said that she loves playing Juliana because everything she does is from a place of love. I hope this means that she will change the resistance and mold it into something worth rooting for. I have a gut feeling she will because of the teaser trailer where we see someone sewing a Reich flag into a symbol of peace instead of just tearing it apart like we’ve seen in other shows/movies a million times. Juliana destroyed the films about Thomas’s illness, after all!
As for the scene at the end of the trailer where it looks like John walks into Juliana’s cell and is shocked to see her there, it it is either a clever editing combo of two very different scenes or something more. I can’t help but wonder if Juliana dies and then a Juliana from another universe travels to his, or he sees her disappearing into another reality before his very eyes–I have so many questions!
With all that being said, it is clear that the resistance will be one of the major players (right up there with the Reich and Pacific States). TMITHC thus far has been a unique, creative show which paints characters in realistic shades of grey. I have high hopes that they will continue to produce great content—that teaser trailer.
They could have just had a resistance fighter burn it and shout something cliché like “Freedom!” but no. They showed someone sewing it into something that represents good. I’ve never seen that done before, and that, my friends, is why I have high hopes for Season 3.
I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to say in one post, which means there will be more posts in the future!
After two long years, I look forward to what is in store for us.
I’ll leave you with a bit of fanart I drew ages ago when I thought they were going to announce S3’s release date (you don’t want to know how long ago that was, ha ha!):
