Actor Jeremy Strong said he used Crime and Punishment and The Manchurian Candidate as inspirations for his performance as Kendall in season 2, describing the character as an "almost somnambulistic, just dead-eyed soldier who's been weaponized, who's been made to cross further and further his own moral and ethical lines."
Scenes depicting Brightstar Adventure Park were shot at Six Flags Great Escape in Queensbury, a town north of Albany, New York, with 200 locally-hired extras.
Scott Tobias of Vulture inferred that the active-shooter scare in the episode was inspired by the real-life bomb threat in the CNN offices in December 2018.