In a truly impressive case of expansion of existing source material, Prime video’s classic sci-fi series managed to turn a fantastic original novel into a much longer four-season story. There’s never been a better time to be a sci-fi TV fan. From Apple TV’s ambitious Isaac Asimov adaptation Foundation for his dystopian thriller Silofor its upcoming William Gibson adaptation Neuromancerthere is a deluge of great shows in the genre.
Of course, that’s just one streaming service’s sci-fi offering. Netflix has Altered carbon, Reason 8, Stranger Thingsand its eight-season sci-fi masterpiece Black mirror. Meanwhile, Prime Video has The expansiona sprawling space opera that brought author James SA Corey’s series of bestselling novels to life on screen. Prime Video was also home to an ambitious adaptation of the work of the late, great Philip K. Dick. Dick is best known for writing Androids dream of electric sheepwhich was adapted to the screen as Blade Runner.
However, the prolific author wrote much more than just the groundbreaking sci-fi noir novel. Dick also wrote the source material for A Scanner Darkly and Minority reportas well as the short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.” The last one was adapted by Robocop director Paul Verhoeven as the prescient sci-fi blockbuster Total recalland this adaptation’s loose approach to Dick’s writing may be part of what inspired Prime Video’s four-season sci-fi series The Man in the High Castle to experiment with amplifying the author’s original story.
The Man in the High Castle book expansion is tastefully done
As noted by a Syfy piece celebrating the show’s final season, The Man in the High Castle needed to expand on Dick’s novel almost as soon as its pilot was finished. Set in a parallel universe where Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan won World War II, the series ambitiously introduced an entire alternate world history before zeroing in on specific characters.
While Prime Video’s second Philip K. Dick show, Electric dreams, was an anthology that introduced new stories with each episode, The Man in the High Castle took the basic setup established in Dick’s 240-page novel and turned it into a four-season story. Although both the book and the show both focus on the mysterious title character, who is the author of an alternate history novel in the universe where the Allies won, the show made many important changes.
Rufus Sewell’s villainous character John Smith is one such invention, and the fact that he was not a character in the original novel initially concerned the actor before he saw the purpose of the American Nazi collaborator in the larger story of the series. Other changes added to the show were drawn from Dick’s abandoned research for a potential sequel novel that never materialized.
The Man in the High Castle book expansion started a growing trend
While The Man in the High Castle was an early adopter of this trend, the show’s critical success means that it has become surprisingly common for subsequent television adaptations to expand beyond their source material. While HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise famously struggled to finish the story of George RR Martins A song of ice and fire saga without a book to adapt, its spinoffs House of the Dragon and A knight of the seven kingdoms were praised for their thoughtful, surprising canon changes.
Corresponding Foundation made changes to Asimov’s source material very gladly The Man in the High Castleexpanding certain story elements and shortening others. At a time when ambitious, complicated sci-fi stories are increasingly becoming a welcome presence on the small screen, The Man in the High Castle helped pave the way for them to experiment with looser approaches to literary adaptation.
Source: Syfy
- Publication date
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2015 – 2019-00-00
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Frank Spotnitz
- Directors
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David Semel, Daniel Percival, John Fawcett, Alex Zakrzewski, Karyn Kusama, Nelson McCormick, Brad Anderson, Bryan Spicer, Charlotte Brändström, Chris Long, Colin Bucksey, Daniel Sackheim, David Petrarca, Ernest R. Dickerson, Fred Toye, Jennifer Getzinger, Ken Olin, Michael Rymer, Michael Slovis, He. Deborah ChowSteph Green, Meera Menon
- Authors
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Wesley Strick, Rob Williams, David Scarpa, Erik Oleson, Jace Richdale, Rick Cleveland, Thomas Schnauz, Mark Richard, Chris Collins, Kalen Egan, Elizabeth Benjamin, Emma Frost, Eric Overmyer, Eric Simonson, Julie Hébert, Walon Green, William N. Fordes, Evan Wright, Lolis Eric Elie, Francesca Gardiner, Dre
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Alexa Davalos
Juliana Crain
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