Man in the High Castle: Callum Keith Rennie joins season 2

The Man in the High Castle is adding one more link connecting the key players to, well, the man in the high castle himself.

Callum Keith Rennie joins season 2 of the alternate history drama as Gary Connell, an American leader of the West Coast Resistance movement tasked with overseeing the delivery of the reels to the enigmatic titular figure. As a former convict, Gary is serious about helping the movement; in other words, he isn’t afraid to use brutal violence against the Japanese Pacific States and the Reich presence on the West Coast. Gary’s actions, Rennie tells EW, could lead to collateral damage and other repercussions, affecting the delicate balance built in the Axis-powered world. “[Gary] was a criminal, but he’s using his skills, his ability to move through the world under the radar, for good,” Rennie says. “His morality may be different from other people’s… He’s more of a heroic figure in his own mind.”

Rennie’s casting also marks a mini-Battlestar Galactica reunion: The actor, who played Leoben Conoy in the sci-fi thriller, will appear opposite Rick Worthy, who played Lem in the first season of High Castle and Simon in Battlestar. And though the Amazon period drama based on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel hasn’t gone full sci-fi just yet — the season 1 finale hints at something… bigger — Rennie says he’s prepared to jump in, however the series develops. “Working in the world that they created is so fantastic,” he says. “Everybody’s put in a place of compromise.”

The Man in the High Castle returns in 2016.