Amazon Studios said today that Stephen Root has landed the title role in The Man in the High Castle, its adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s alt-history novel about life in the former United States after the Allied Powers lost World War II.

He’ll play the mysterious figure tied to the Resistance movement who collects the enigmatic films that seem to depict alternate versions of reality — the ones the Japanese and Nazis want to find and destroy. Watch a clip of his character above.

Season 2, which starts streaming December 16, picks up with political tensions mounting between Germany and Japan. Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) facing the consequences of her decision to betray the Resistance and allow Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), a suspected Nazi agent, to escape the Pacific States with a film originally bound for the Man in the High Castle. Joe returns a hero to the Reich and finds himself thrust into the Nazi capital of Berlin, face to face with the father who abandoned him. Meanwhile, Frank Frink (Rupert Evans) becomes increasingly radicalized and drawn further into the Resistance after seeing images of his own execution in the mysterious films. DJ Qualls, Joel de la Fuente, Brennan Brown, Bella Heathcote, Callum Keith Rennie, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Rufus Sewell co-star.

Veteran actor Root has appeared in dozens of films as Selma, Trumbo, Boardwalk Empire and Finding Dory and played Milton in the cult classic Office Space. His recent TV credits include Turn, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and voice roles in Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

The Man in the High Castle is executive produced by David Zucker and Isa Dick Hackett.