"What Would Diplo Do?" is based on "A Day in the Life," an online concert promo for Diplo's Mad Decent Block Party, which featured Van Der Beek playing Diplo. The same team behind the Viceland series produced that digital short. Instead of actually playing Diplo, in the TV series, Van Der Beek will play a version of the DJ in a "collection of parables about life as told through the eyes of a guy who can bring 60,000 people to their feet, but kind of sucks one-on-one," which first broke news of the project.