J.K. Simmons never read any synopses nor character descriptions. He read the script, liked it and signed on to the project after he found out Sissy Spacek was attached.
The foreign language scenes of episodes two and three were filmed in the province of Jujuy, in northwestern Argentina, where Jesuit monks had a preponderant presence a few centuries ago, in fact, the 'traveler' played by Piotr Adamczyk repeats "Ad Maioren Dei Gloriam" the motto of the order, in addition, the location is very close to the southern end of the "Capac Ñam" or "Camino Real del Inca" (Royal Road of the Inca), the main road of the Inca Empire that went from Quito (Ecuador ) to Tucumán (Argentina) via Machu Picchu in Peru (more than 3,200 miles or 5,200 km)
Jude carries a copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" in the series, with his father's handwritten markings inside. The story of the novel involved a man falsely imprisoned for a crime, who later makes a daring escape after spending years digging a tunnel. After escaping, he acquired hidden treasure which he learned about in jail, and executed a plan of revenge against those who imprisoned him.
As a marketing strategy, Amazon Prime Video teamed up with Amazon Web Services, SES, and Intelsat to beam the first episode into outer space, avoiding satellites that would send the broadcast back to Earth. This made Amazon Prime Video the first streamer to distribute its content directly into space. Prime Video said this was "the farthest distance that a TV series has been intentionally distributed."