Amell reflects on the show’s nearly 8-year journey, getting to give it a “beautiful” series finale and why he got “choked up” addressing the cast and crew when he wrapped.
Upload complete … or, at least it will be when the Prime Video show wraps up its four-season run with its final four episodes next week.
Debuting amid the pandemic in 2020, the comedy from Greg Daniels (co-creator of Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill) is set in a not-so-distant future where people are able to upload their consciousness into a digital afterlife when they die. After dying in a car accident later revealed to be anything but accidental, Nathan (Robbie Amell) forms a romance with his still-living handler (Andy Allo), while grappling with a conspiracy and a girlfriend on the outside.
TooFab spoke with Amell before the fourth season, consisting of four episodes, drops August 25 — where he revealed what it was like bringing Nathan’s storyline to and end, alongside the series as a whole.
“It’s very bittersweet. You want to keep going, but it means so much to get to actually have a series finale, give closure for the fans,” Amell said of getting to finish the story instead of the series — like many streaming shows — getting prematurely canceled.
“Our show was kind of known for cliffhangers, so to end after Season 3 would have been horrible for the cast, the crew, for the fans,” he continued. “I also think Greg just wrote a beautiful series finale and gave everybody these incredible moments that just would have been so sad not to get to see this through.”
In this age of streaming, having a complete package for fans to view is also vital for newcomers discovering the show down the line, Amell pointed out.
“The whole thing put together is only 29 episodes. It’s now one of these things where someone can find it, had never seen it before and watch it in a week if they feel like it. It’s got a beginning, a middle and an end,” he explained. “In this world of streaming, you used to watch whatever episode of television is on, but now people are watching things from the beginning to the end … I think this show really works so well in its entirety and I’m just proud that we got to end it.”
Now 37, Amell started working on the show seven years ago, when he was 29.
“The show was a blast to work on, but as far as learning from people, I think it was more 7 years of life and how I’ve changed,” he said of his transformation over that time. “Becoming a father, and I think I got married right before the show started, just going form my late 20s to my mid-30s more than anything else.”
He explained he also changed by watching his costars, including Allo, Allegra Edwards, Kevin Bigley and Zainab Johnson, saying he “learned more from the people” he worked with than anything else. He also said creator Daniels showed him how someone “who is so successful and has done some of the biggest shows ever made” could also “not have any ego” and “just be such a great guy,” while praising his on-set work with his real-life son Owen Daniels — who plays A.I. Guy on the show.
As for what it was like filming his final moments on set? Amell told TooFab he was a bit surprised by how emotional he became after wrapping.
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“I wanted to say something to the crew and I didn’t think that I was going to get emotional,” he explained, saying that all changed “the second I looked around at the people who had been there with us — a lot of our crew was Day 1 and if they weren’t Day 1, they were Season 2, Day 1.”
Praising the “creativity and weirdness” of the series and how excited it made everyone involved, Amell said “it was just really special.”
“So I actually started to get choked up as soon as I started to say anything and I just thanked everybody for being there and being a part of it,” he continued. “It was one of those shows that never felt like work. Everybody had such a great time. It was not a high stress job, even though everyone cared and worked their asses off, everybody was having so much fun and really enjoying the oddity of the show.”
While he’s fully wrapped, the actor said it still doesn’t feel like he’s totally said goodbye to the show — as he still hasn’t watched the final four episodes himself.
“I still don’t feel like I said goodbye. I think part of it, for me, will be watching the final season,” he told TooFab. “I’ve held off watching it. I’m watching it with friends and family on the 25th and that’ll feel a little more like closure. People ask me about saying goodbye to Nathan, and Nathan is so close to who I am as a person, that I don’t feel like I ever said goodbye. I was just going to work and being a version of myself.”
Upload’s final season drops August 25 on Prime Video.
