EXCLUSIVE: The creators of Snabba Cash and Paradis City are behind the latest legal thriller out of Scandinavia.
Burden of Justice (Försvararna) is set in the world of Sweden’s elite law firms, where desperation, ambition and moral compromise simmer just beneath the surface.
A co-production of Swedish pubcaster SVT, Strive Stories and Film i Väst, the modern Stockholm-set series comes from Snabba Cash writer and author Jens Lapidus and Frans Milisic Wiklund. Nicklas Wikström Nicastro and Caroline Landerberg from Strive Studios, which made both Netflix’s Snabba Cash and Prime Video’s Paradis City, are producing.
Denmark’s DR, Norway’s NRK, Finland’s YLE and Iceland’s RÚV are attached alongside SVT as part of the European N12 drama partnership. DR Sales has landed international rights.
Per the synopsis, Burden of Justice will follow “the high-powered lawyers of Matsson & Markovic as they navigate sweeping legal reforms, shifting public sentiment, and the personal fallout of lives lived in the moral gray zone. Friends and partners Sasa and Kalle once shared a vision of justice — now, with one embroiled in a personal rape case and the other defending a high-profile gang member, their ideals and loyalties begin to unravel. Meanwhile, junior lawyers Oscar and Tilde face their own reckoning as ambition leads to criminal collusion, and the line between professional duty and personal danger begins to blur.”
Season 1 will run to eight episodes ands begins filming in August ahead of a spring 2026 launch on SVT. Casting is currently underway.
The Burden of Justice production team are out in Cannes this week, and just unveiled the project to prospective partners and buyers, we understand.
For co-producer Film i Väst, the project is the second Deadline has revealed today, following news of Golden Boys, another Swedish drama set in the professional world. That TV4 series stars Adam Lungren in a story about two ambitious Swedish city boy cousins who rise and fall in the financial sector, creating various illegal business ventures along the way.