One of Amazon's first forays into the world of streaming television, The Man in the High Castle ran for four seasons between 2015 and 2019 and told the story of an alternate reality in which the Allied Powers lost World War II to the Axis. With the Greater Nazi Reich and the Japanese in control of the majority of the United States, the series focuses on the realities of racism, prejudice, and resistance in a world like our own, but still so very different.
There were many characters introduced in the series' short run, though some of them played much more significant roles in the overall narrative of Resistance than others. Here, we take a look back at the series' ten most important main characters, ranked by their intelligence level.
10 Joe Blake
To put it simply, Joe Blake is the dumbest character in the entire show. For the whole first season, Joe risks ruining his undercover Reich mission by falling for Juliana's pretty face. In the second season, he messes around with rich German elite and spends the rest of the season crying and getting high.
The third season gives him the first real emotional depth he's shown in the series, as he spirals further downward into trauma and villainy. But once again, he's too dumb to get anything done, leading to him getting his throat slit by Juliana in their first argument.
Did we mention that he's an idiot?
9 Wyatt Price
Wyatt Price is a late addition to the series, and though he proves resourceful and intelligent at first, he ultimately winds up muddled and ineffective. In the third season, Wyatt is the middle man for all Resistance needs in the Neutral Zone, possessing an impressive network of connections.
But in the fourth season, Wyatt is seemingly hapless, helpless, and clueless all at the same time, getting himself into one dumb scrape after another and having his butt saved by Juliana and other supporting characters on multiple occasions.
8 Helen Smith
For almost the entire first three seasons of the show, Helen Smith is little more than a doting house wife, subservient and submissive and following the Reich's ideology. Midway through the third season, she begins to question the life she has lived for decades, and takes the initiative to leave her life behind when she goes on the run with her daughters.
But it's the fourth season in particular that finds Helen being given real agency, as she manipulates the Reich and her own husband so expertly that she plays a key role in their downfall, even if it means sacrificing herself to do it.
7 Frank Frink
When the series first begins, Frank Frink is one of the most motivated characters. One of the series' only Jewish heroes, Frank has an understandable chip on his shoulder, one that only grows larger and more justified after he winds up in the crossfire of Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido.
After the senseless murder of his sister and her children, Frank becomes a verified leader of the new Resistance movement. He attempts to kill and later successfully kills high ranking Japanese officials, and leads guerrilla Resistance movements that lead to his own near death, all in an attempt to return the world to the way it once was.
6 Robert Childan
Robert Childan is one of the most truly utilitarian, adaptive, and flexible characters in the entire series. The original protagonist of the novel on which the series is loosely based, Childan is an antiquities dealer in the Japanese states who knows the ins and outs of Japanese culture and government.
Though he winds up in plenty of dangerous situations over the series, and though he has no clear skills at fighting or combat by any means, Childan is one of the lone characters to survive the series relatively unscathed, all thanks to his quick thinking and his ability to overcome and barter.
5 Takeshi Kido
Few characters are as relentless, as passionate, and as loyal to their leaders as Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido. From the very beginning of the series, Kido is a fearsome foe to anyone who dares cross him or the Japenese empire to whom he is passionately pledged to serve.
He is a dogged investigator, able to pick up on the smallest lies or inaccuracies in reports and interrogations that no one else is able to perceive. He uncovers the truth behind countless crimes and assassination and attempted assassinations, and is willing to go to great lengths to preserve the power and security of the empire.
4 John Smith
Though John Smith may have begun his journey as an American soldier in World War II, over the course of the series, he ascends from the position of Obergruppenführer to Reichsführer. Through his cunning wit, relentless drive to protect his family, and powerful presence, Smith rises rapidly through the ranks of the Reich.
In actuality, he may never have wanted such a position of power, which is something reflects on multiple times during the series. But when it comes to keeping his loved ones safe, John is willing to go above and beyond - something he is always able to do thanks to his sharp intellect.
3 Juliana Crain
Without the character of Juliana Crain, this story would never have been told, and the Resistance would never have succeeded. Though she began the series as an unsuspecting young woman in San Francisco, Juliana soon learned she was the key to understanding the multiverse, and in restoring the world to its rightful order.
Her bravery, her compassion, her selflessness, and her keen understanding of human behavior make her one of the series' most compelling, and most brilliant characters - which makes her limited role in the series' final season all the more disappointing.
2 Hawthorne Abendsen
Few characters within the world of The Man in the High Castle can claim to possess as much knowledge as the titular man in the High Castle himself. Hawthorne Abendsen is a man who has seen many, many things, many worlds, may alternate realities, and processed the implications of each of them.
Though he often speaks in a confusing philosophical manner and though his exact role in the acquisition of the High Castle films remains unclear, Abendsen is almost as close to the series comes as creating an all powerful, all knowing being.
1 Nobusuke Tagomi
As close as the man in the High Castle himself may come, no character has truly grasped the truth of human nature and the multiverse in the way that Trade Minister Nobusuke Tagomi did. Through his mastery of the I Ching, Tagomi was the first character to be able to travel between the worlds of the series' multiverse.
He was also always aware of the reality of the world around him, and of plots that were being planned against anyone whether an enemy or an ally. He imparted much of his knowledge to Juliana in particular, though sadly, his brilliant presence would be absent in the series' final season after the puzzling decision to kill his character off off screen.
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