The genesis of the series originated from a lunch between executive producers Sam Mendes and Armando Iannucci. The two were initially sharing ideas for a potential collaboration but nothing came to pass. It wasn't until Mendes shared his experiences making the James Bond films 007 - Operação Skyfall (2012) and 007 Contra Spectre (2015) to Iannucci, which he described as "magnificent chaos", that led to the idea of the series, with Jon Brown being hired as showrunner.
Several characters discuss the work of Christopher Nolan with Himesh Patel's character Daniel. Patel starred in Nolan's film Tenet (2020).