[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of the Amazon series Upload.]From creator Greg Daniels (Parks and Recreation, The Office), the Amazon original sci-fi comedy series Upload, set in a technologically advanced future where humans can be uploaded into a virtual afterlife, has returned for a second season and continues to follow Nathan (Robbie Amell), a guy who’s left his more clueless life behind to find his better self, albeit in a virtual world. His very extra ex-girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) has unexpectedly joined him while Nora (Andy Allo), who captured his heart as she was teaching him the ways of his new existence, is unaware of how he really feels, and all Nathan wants to do is figure out what his next steps are.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Daniels talked about having a two-season plan in his initial pitch for the series, getting all the scripts written before they start shooting the season, the evolution of the Nathan character from earlier versions of the story, the progressing of the Nathan-Nora relationship, the very flawed Ingrid, the big questions left with the cliffhanger for Season 2, and that they’re already at work for a Season 3 that they’re very hopeful will happen.
Collider: When you did the first season and left us with that cliffhanger, did you know where you were going next in Season 2? Did you already have all of the answers to those questions?
GREG DANIELS: Yes and no. When I pitched it back in 2014, I had two seasons in my pitch, so I had a general sense, but you gather a new group of writers together and you realize, “Oh, wait a minute, you know what’s really popping is this thing from Season 1.” You discuss it and it goes off, sometimes, into a different direction. But the general bones of the frustrating separation at the end, and then how they possibly find their way back to each other, and what’s happening in the mystery, is stuff I had.
At the start of the season, do you tell your actors what their full arc for the season will be, with all of those twists and turns, or are there things that you intentionally hold back until as late as possible?
DANIELS: The way this streaming eight-episode chunk of production happens, all the scripts are done before we start shooting. We have table readings in the beginning, so they know everything. But sometimes, in the process of shooting, we’ll change something. We did add a few beats to the end of episode seven, the week that we were shooting it, which threw a lot of new stuff into Season 3.
This is a show that you’ve been thinking about for a while, on and off, in various forms over the years. Now that you’ve done two seasons, how does what you’ve been able to do with this compare to what you thought it could be, when you first conceived it?
DANIELS: I think it’s grown so much. I can barely remember what my initial thoughts were. For instance, in my first draft, I modeled Nathan after my barber, who’s a Persian American guy from Westwood who’s very good-looking and easy with the ladies. He had a whole backstory where he was Persian American, but with the different rewrites, a lot changed. And then, once you cast it, then you really know who you’re writing about. And then, I had a draft where I thought maybe Nathan would be played by Hannibal Buress. I had a whole rewrite for Hannibal, at one point, which is funny to think about. There are a lot of different versions in my head, but now that it’s actually been produced, I can barely remember them. I really am just picturing the way that this cast has interpreted all the characters.
There’s something so special about the relationship between Nathan and Nora, and seeing it evolve into these various different forms. What has it been like to watch Robbie Amell and Andy Allo in those roles and see them develop their chemistry together?
DANIELS: It’s really great fun for me to see how talented they are, in so many different ways. They’re both so incredibly good looking, which I normally can’t relate to very well, but they’re also both very funny and very charming. I love that you can throw a lot of comedy and comic situations to Andy, and she really gets it. She’s got a real sparky personality, and she can be very subtle with it. And the same with Robbie. Robbie has got this action hero vibe. I compare him to Cary Grant, as a performer, because he was so good looking, but he was also very funny in a dry way. I feel like Robbie is hilarious, in a very Robbie way. I really like writing for them because they can go into so many different directions.
Just when you feel like maybe you can sympathize with Ingrid (Allegra Edwards), she has to go and reveal that she didn’t really die and upload herself. She’s just been pretending, the entire time. What made you decide to go that route, with her faking it all?
DANIELS: If you think about it as a metaphor, she’s like the girlfriend who fakes a pregnancy to try to nail down the boyfriend. I feel like that’s a move she would do. She’s a little deceptive. I don’t know if we knew that when we started to write her. The issue of her complicity in his murder came up. What did she know? She was trying to protect him, by turning on the preferred occupant setting of the car, but that means she suspected that her dad was trying to kill him. That’s very complicated. I feel like she’s a pretty flawed person, but the fact that she loves him so much and is doing most of this stuff just to end up with him, saves her character a bit. She takes a lot of crazy steps to get there, but she’s got one aim and it’s a very loving Nathan aim.
I love the whole sequence with Ingrid convincing herself that she really wants this strange AI baby, and then the baby grows so fast.
DANIELS: Having a second chance in this digital life extension can be taken by some people to improve themselves. Even though she’s only there under false pretenses, she’s still having these weird experiences that are stretching her and giving her a little bit more compassion. So, I like that story a lot too, but part of it was just preparing her to be a better person.
Did you always know how you wanted the meeting between Nathan and Nora in real life to be, and what the right balance of humor would be with that, or did that also change and evolve?
DANIELS: I thought that was executed very well in the script. We knew it needed to be awkward, but obviously very passionate. Those are hard things to game out because it’s so much about what the exact dialogue is and how they choose to play it. I thought it was well directed too. It was a group effort.
What were you looking to do with Matteo, as a character and, and what did Paulo Costanzo bring to that role?
DANIELS: He was great. He really nailed it in the audition. It was COVID, so we just got tapes sent in, and he was really good at it. He’s a very accomplished actor. He is a little bit of a trope left-wing guy, who is definitely participating in that scene, but partly to get women. I feel like there’s a little bit of bullshit involved there, so we were leaning into that a little bit that. He has a little bit of the ally who wants to get laid vibe. You could see why she might be seduced into it, but you could also see how she might fall out of favor with it, at the right timing for the story.
You also take the new guy and give him a scene where he has to pull an unconscious Nathan out of the water, which is one of the most standout moments of the season. How much did the reality of that moment turn out even better than what you had hoped or expected it could be?
DANIELS: I’ve gotta give credit where it’s due. Jeff Blitz was the director of that episode, and that was not in the script. He just thought it would be a fun way to open up the show, at that moment, so he just worked it out, on the day, with Robbie and Paulo. I really enjoyed it when I saw it, but I didn’t know he was gonna do it. He might have called and said, “Hey, it’s gonna take an extra hour, but I wanna get this.” And I was like, “Yeah, sounds good.” But it definitely started with him.
I just couldn’t stop laughing with that whole sequence.
DANIELS: It’s just a complicated position to be in, if you’re Matteo, and you’re forced to help Nathan. Robbie is also very buff, so it was just funny. I’m not exactly sure where the idea came from. It might have been in the rehearsals, they just noticed that was an opportunity, but it was cool.
I have to admit that I am worried about where things are going next with all of this, between the very real chance that the download might not work and Nathan’s head could explode again. With him being re-uploaded from a backup file, it feels like there could be several Nathans, no Nathans, or any manner of strange things happening. What made you decide to leave the season with those questions, especially when you don’t know for sure whether you’ll get to finish telling that story?
DANIELS: I might be overconfident, but this was the number one half-hour comedy on Prime Video and people seem really into it. I don’t know. I had a good feeling about getting a Season 3, so we decided to let people wonder. This idea of, “Oh my God, you ended on a big cliffhanger,” we basically end every episode on some sort of a cliffhanger, so it’s not completely out of context for the show. I just feel like, when there is a gap between seasons, it’s cool to let the audience imagine all sorts of possibilities. If you put too much closure into it, you can just stop thinking about it and be surprised that they’re back, two years from now.
And I hope it’s not two years. I hope we get a Season 3 pickup and it’s a lot shorter than that. In between the first two seasons, there was a lot of wondering about what’s gonna happen next. It’s a way to keep people engaged. I was a big fan of the Harry Potter books when they were being rolled out. My oldest daughter and I would read them, and when you didn’t know what the next book was gonna be, there was such an anticipation. We’d go stand in line at the bookstore to find out was what was happening. It’s hard to remember what that felt like, now that it’s such a complete thing.
Do you already have some of the answers to those questions? Do you have a pretty good sense of what you’re doing with things next?
DANIELS: Yeah, I think I’m allowed to say that the writers have been working on Season 3 with me, in anticipation of hopefully getting the pickup and trying to get Season 3 out sooner. So, we’ve worked out an awful lot of good things.
Upload is available to stream at Prime Video.