With Frank Spotnitz at the helm, Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle quickly became its most-watched series ever for the streaming service, and a critic and fan favorite, with NPR and USA Today naming it as one of the best shows of the year. So, yesterday’s announcement of Spotnitz’ impending exit as showrunner came as a surprising turn of events.
Hit the jump for all the details.
Drawing the attention of the press and the artistic community, the writer/producer finally brought to the screens a challenging production that had been years in the making and a passion project for Spotnitz. In the past, Ridley Scott had tried to sell the show to the BBC, but it wasn’t until Spotnitz got on board and developed the show for Syfy - where they ultimately passed - that High Castle with Spotnitz's guidance finally landed at Amazon Prime.
In numerous appearances, Spotnitz spoke highly of the work of the cast and crew behind the series and of his passionate commitment to Philip K. Dick’s creation and the storytelling possibilities for the upcoming second season.
This was the joint statement released by Amazon and Big Light Productions:
“Given the ambition and scope of the series, the decision has been made to locate all creative efforts on ‘The Man in the High Castle’ to the west coast; Frank Spotnitz will remain as an executive producer and step back from showrunner. His responsibilities will be managed by our deep and talented bench of producers. We are enormously grateful to him for bringing our customers on one of the most watched original shows on Amazon Video and we are excited about the team’s vision for season two.”
No replacement has been named for the showrunner position. Early leaks from Deadline’s Dominic Patten pointed to unconfirmed statements that conflicts between the dynamics of production and Spotnitz’ involvement in the process were at the root of the separation, calling it a “hands off” approach. Later, Deadline retracted and corrected their article to match what two of our sources have confirmed to us and other publications such as Variety and The Wrap.
Variety pointed out that one of their sources attributes the impasse to creative differences between the Studio and Spotnitz. Because of the necessary adjustments, sources have confirmed that Amazon has called for a 2-week hiatus in production for High Castle.
This isn’t the first time that an X-Files writer has cut ties with the company. As you may remember, Chris Carter walked away from the studio when efforts to bring The After to fruition came to a screeching halt. Back then, creative differences were cited. Likewise, other producers and filmmakers have expressed that working with the retail giant is a difficult endeavor, with shows like Alpha House stuck in production limbo.
Spotnitz is known in the television community as one of the most prolific Writer/Producers in the business, having been part of the success of The X-Files as a writer and executive producer. Since, he’s joined and created many successful shows such as the reboot of Strikeback - a show that under his blueprint went on for four seasons as a hit in the US and overseas. Hunted and Transporter are also included in his list of successful productions besides High Castle, with the most recent being MIPCOM favorite, Medici: Masters of Florence. Under his guidance, Big Light Productions has become one of the fastest-growing independent production companies in Europe and Spotnitz has received recognition as one of the creative minds changing the landscape of Television in the continent.
The question remains, with such an expensive show being such a big hit under Spotnitz leadership, why the sudden need to tamper with a winning formula before season two even airs? What do you think about Spotnitz’ exit from the show? Will you still tune in?