The film is adapted from the 1965–1968 CBS television series of the same name, which was itself loosely based on Johann David Wyss's 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson.

Lacey Chabert made her first feature film appearance in Lost in Space, playing Penny Robinson.

Several actors from the original 1960s television series made cameo appearances in the film.

Filming began on March 3, 1997, at Shepperton Studios in London, with more than 700 visual effects shots planned.

Visual effects for the film were created by multiple vendors including Computer Film Company, The Mill, Cinesite, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

New Line Cinema hoped the $70 million film would launch a multimedia franchise, with plans for follow-up animated and live-action television series as well as licensing deals with Trendmasters for toys and Harper Prism and Scholastic for tie-in novels.

Composer Bruce Broughton's original score deliberately takes no musical cues from either of John Williams' TV themes for the original series, while the Apollo 440 song 'Lost in Space' does reference the second version of Williams' TV theme.

The film ended Titanic's 15-week run at the top of the US box office, opening at number one in a then-record 3,306 theaters and setting the biggest April opening weekend record at the time, a record later broken by The Matrix in 1999.