MAJOR DAD

‘High Castle’ star: Nazi father figures in new season

“The Man in the High Castle” Season 2 available Friday on Amazon

WHEN we last left “The Man in the High Castle”’ s Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), the Nazi character had infiltrated the resistance, fallen in love with partisan fighter Juliana (Alexa Davalos) and murdered Frank Frink (Rupert Evans) in one of the alternate-reality movies at the dramatic core of Amazon’s multi-layered series.

In Season 2, which drops Friday, we’ll learn more about Joe’s back story as it unfolds against the rising tensions between Germany and Japan — both of whom rule the US after defeating America in World War II.

Welcome to the upsidedown world of the streaming series.

“Joe is still trying to figure it out,” says Kleintank, 26. “He’s conflicted with what he had to do in Season 1 and he’s now against Obergruppenfuhrer Smith [Rufus Sewell] and wants nothing to do with the Reich or its ideology. But it’s a very seductive world and it sucks him back in, and his father is one of those reasons.

“Joe goes to Berlin and they try to open his eyes to this world and what it means — and what it has to offer ... but Joe is constantly in conflict with himself and with his belief system. We go deeper into his psyche to see why he’s doing what he’s doing.”

That belief system is challenged by Joe’s father, Reichsminister Martin Heusmann (Sebastian Roche) — unseen last season but a major presence in Season 2. “Joe is building a relationship with his father, who is kind of reminiscent of [Hitler’s architect] Albert Speer,” says Kleintank. “He’s the head architect of the Nazi Reich who’s trying to teach Joe. They have a weird relation- ship because [Joe] has never known this man for his entire life, so it’s difficult.”

One part of last season’s drama — Joe’s growing relationship with Juliana — will take something of a detour this season, Kleintank says.

“It’s funny [in regard to] that romance. They’re all separated this season — Joe, Frank, Juliana — they’re all disbanded. They don’t see each other,” he says, before mentioning a plot twist (which we won’t spoil here).

So did Kleintank read Philip K. Dick’s novel upon which “The Man in the High Castle” is based?

“They asked me not to read the book [before last season] because the character of Joe [in the book] is not exactly the character they created [for the Amazon series],” he says. “In the book, his name is Joe and he does meet Juliana and they have similar situations. He’s a lot different and Juliana ends up killing him.

“But me being me, I couldn’t not read the book and I said, ‘You guys were right — I’m glad you didn’t kill me off.’ ”