Mr. Queen is an adaptation of the Chinese web drama Go Princess Go (2015), which in turn was based on the novel 'Tai zi fei sheng zhi ji' by writer Xian Chen.

The original Chinese web drama was a massive viral success with 1.5 billion views on the LeTV platform, but it also suffered censorship from the Chinese government, which removed it from the internet for a week and censored a third of the content due to its sexual scenes and vulgar language.

Unlike the Chinese version, where the protagonist travels 1000 years back among entirely fictional characters, in the Korean adaptation the time travel spans just 170 years and mixes real historical characters (such as King Cheoljong) with fictional ones.

Shin Hye-sun was confirmed in March 2020 as the lead actress, followed in June 2020 by Kim Jung-hyun, Bae Jong-ok, and Kim Tae-woo, while Seol In-ah and Yoo Young-jae joined in July 2020.

Bae Jong-ok and Shin Hye-sun had previously worked together on the film 'Innocent' (결백), so this series marked their second collaboration.

Kim Jung-hyun and Seol In-ah reunited after having previously acted together in the drama 'School 2017'.

The first script reading was held in October 2020, and on November 24, 2020, filming was temporarily halted when one of the supporting cast members tested positive for COVID-19.

Before airing, the production had to issue a statement apologizing for racist comments made in the past by Xian Chen, the author of the original work, about Korea and its people.

The series generated strong controversy for 'distorting' Korean history, including a scene that called the Annals of Joseon (a South Korean National Treasure) a 'tabloid', which prompted over 2,248 complaints to South Korea's Communications Standards Commission.

Due to the controversies, on March 26, 2021, production company CJ ENM announced the complete removal of the series from all VOD platforms and YouTube and Naver clips; the streaming service was reactivated only in December of the following year.

Because of the scandal, the association of descendants of the Poongyang Cho clan demanded changes and the producers had to modify the name of the historical clan in the fiction, changing it to 'Poongan Jo' and 'Ansong Kim' instead of the actual names of the historical clans.

Due to its great viewership success, the producers decided to film an additional episode that aired in six parts of up to 10 minutes each, even though all originally planned episodes had already been filmed before the premiere.

The final episode, aired on February 14, 2021, reached an average national rating of 17.4% and a peak of 19.3%, making Mr. Queen the fifth most-watched drama in tvN history, surpassed only by Crash Landing on You, Goblin, Reply 1988, and Mr. Sunshine.

Lead actress Shin Hye-sun suffered strong personal criticism due to the series' controversy, which caused several brands to cancel the advertising contracts she had with them.