Upload season 2 returns audiences to the luxurious virtual afterlife known as Lakeview, where Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell), Luke Crossley (Kevin Bigley), and many other deceased humans reside. A war veteran who decided to "upload" after losing both of his legs, Luke befriended Nathan in season 1 while the latter acclimated himself to Lakeview upon his untimely death. Aleesha Morrison (Zainab Johnson) works at Lakeview's parent company Horizon, as one of several "angel supervisors" meant to assist uploads with navigating their digital world. The Prime Video series' sophomore run sees Aleesha take on a new role at work when her colleague and Nathan's love interest Nora (Andy Allo) falls off the grid, while the humorous dynamic between Aleesha and Luke grows more complex.
Zainab Johnson and Kevin Bigley spoke with Screen Rant about their characters' relationship in Upload season 2 and their experience working together on the show.
Screen Rant: In season 2, with Nora's absence from Horizon, what can you share about the direction Aleesha's work life takes?
Zainab Johnson: With Nora's absence, Aleesha gets a little bit overwhelmed because it makes her workload heavier. She's not one of those people that's like "Nope, I'm gonna do it." It's like, no, she's gonna fight it every single step of the way. I think that it's funny to watch her juggle what she has to do and then how she feels about Nora's absence. It's interesting how Aleesha feels and how that takes shape in the entire second season.
We've seen much of the central plot revolve around Nathan's relationship with his angel Nora, so what kind of dynamic develops between Luke and his angel Aleesha in season 2?
Kevin Bigley: It's a continuing of the pushing of the buttons. Luke has been an antagonist to her for as long as they've had whatever relationship they've had. But I think all of a sudden, Luke is on to something. There's an episode in which he particularly is feeling a certain way about an invasion of privacy and he ends up being correct, which I think Aleesha even says rarely ever happens. I think it's probably even startling to him that he's right about something. I think it's interesting to see that they are working against each other and with each other at times. I think Aleesha, especially as she's progressing in her career at Horizon, she's trying to buck the instinct that she has to get involved with his shenanigans, but at the same time, the games that Luke presents can be a welcome distraction. So, it weirdly presents an interesting obstacle for Aleesha, whether or not to keep engaging with Luke or just completely disregard him.
Zainab Johnson: You know, what I like about the second season, the first season everytime Aleesha showed up, Luke didn't want her there. She was a nuisance to him and now in the second season, he is a purposeful nuisance. He knows what he can do to get to her and he does it.
I love the interactions between you two in this show. What has been like working together and bouncing those comedic elements off of each other?
Kevin Bigley: Really great. I have always had a good time with Z. We shared a lot of van rides to get COVID tested as well. So, there was a lot of time spent together. There was one day — I won't get into it too much — one episode where we have to play tennis that in particular, was a lot of fun. Specifically, we had to take a terrible tennis lesson and I loved it too because I grilled [Zainab]. I was like, "Are you athletic?" and you were like, "Yes, I'm athletic! Of course, I'm athletic! Don't I look athletic?" You told be how good you were at basketball and everything. You got that racket in your hand and you were just swinging it wildly [laughing]. Just whipping it through the air like you were trying to kill a bird or something.
Zainab Johnson: You know, what's interesting, what's funny is that Kevin and I can be on screen and as much fun as we're having when we're in the scenes, we'll cut and we'll go back to our green rooms or we'll go back to holding and Kevin will be sitting there in a book and I'll be somewhere writing something. It goes from the complete opposite. We're about to do all the shenanigans in this scene and as soon as we cut, we're like... So it's really interesting on set.
Upload season 2 premieres March 11 on Prime Video.