Actors Benjamin Ebbesen (Erik) and Teo Tomczuk (Mathias) grew up in small towns in Norway, where they had very small school groups and everyone knew what everyone else was doing.
The municipality of Øygarden, a chain of hundreds small islands, islets, and reefs, northwest of the city of Bergen, Norway, was used as the backdrop for the fictional island of Vesterøy.
After the first season's success, the German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) joined the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) as co-producer, with the goal to distribute the show internationally.