Robbie Amell (Nathan), Owen Daniels (A.I. Guy). Liane Hentscher/Prime Video
Upload season 3 introduced two different versions of Robbie Amell’s character Nathan — and director Sarah Boyd was up for the challenge.
“I think [it’s] really fun and interesting, the characters diverging,” Boyd exclusively told Us Weekly about filming the third season of the Prime Video series. “You get to see how Nathan’s life changes him when he is downloaded and [when] he goes back to reality and real life stuff. You also get to see how Nathan’s life changes when Ingrid’s a very different person to him and therefore they can have [a] very different kind of relationship. I love watching those two relationships unfold differently.”
Boyd — who directed episodes 8 and 9 of season 3 — noted that Amell had no issues when it came to taking on the extra responsibility of portraying two separate Nathans. “Robbie was really dialed into the differences between the two Nathans. He’s well aware what those two Nathans are,” she said, noting that it only got tricky when they had to “remind” themselves about story points while shooting “out of order.”
Season 3 of Upload premiered in September and reunited viewers with Nathan and Nora (Andy Allo) after Nathan was successfully downloaded into his physical body — and brought back into the real world — at the end of season 2. As he integrated back into reality, a second backup copy Nathan was uploaded into Lakeview after Horizon couldn’t locate the original. While “original” Nathan continued his relationship with Nora on earth, “new” Nathan reignited his romance with ex-fiancée Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) after to being put on a “factory” setting, which doesn’t include memories of Nora.
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By the season 3 finale, it’s revealed that two Nathan’s exist, causing Horizon to destroy one version of the character. While one Nathan survives, it’s unclear which — something even Boyd can’t answer.
“I was given the task of making the visual element of Nathan unclear purposefully so that really it could be either one,” she told Us. “Luckily Nathan physically looks the same, certainly from the neck up.”
The director said that she was careful to choose a “gray” background for Nathan’s final scene so that no matter where he was, he “had been put in some sort of holding cell” that “could have happened in either location.” She added that if fans “think they’ve got the answer, they could be right or they could be wrong. It’s going to be a 50 50 chance.”
Robbie Amell (Nathan), Andy Allo (Nora). Liane Hentscher/Prime Video
Nora and Ingrid certainly will want to know which one of their partners survived, as Ingrid and “new” Nathan had just gotten engaged, while fan-favorite pairing Nora and “original” Nathan made plans for a romantic trip to Montreal.
Viewers have been waiting for Nora and Nathan to get their happy ending since the series premiered in 2020. It’s the chemistry between Alloh and Amell — and the magic of the writers room — that Boyd credits for creating such a popular on screen relationship.
“I think that [Nathan and Nora’s] likability and rooting for them is a product of both the writing and just who Andy and Robbie are as people and obviously as actors,” she said. “You just gravitate towards wanting to watch them. They’re just incredibly attractive. That sounds superficial, but you lean into that couple and it’s both because they have a lot of heart and over the seasons you want to root for them.”
Boyd added that it could be the slow-burn dynamic between the couple that keeps viewers coming back for more.
“[Their love] evolved slowly. There’s no one scene that made you go, ‘Yes, that’s the scene,’” she explained. “It’s an evolution. So I just say that my job is a little bit more circumscribed in the sense that I’ll just help them make their best version of the scene at hand.”
Upload season 3 is now streaming on Prime Video.
