Lee Do-hyun and Go Min-si previously played siblings in Sweet Home (2020), but portray a couple in love in Youth of May.

On October 6, 2020, the agencies of Lee Do-hyun and Go Min-si announced they were in talks for the lead roles, which was confirmed on December 21, 2020.

Lee Sang-yi and Keum Sae-rok play siblings in the series.

Shim Yi-young and Choi Seung-hoon previously also played mother and son in the MBC daily drama Chan-ran-han nae insaeng, and do so again in Youth of May.

Actress Hwang Young-hee immediately took on another role in a different KBS2 Monday-Tuesday drama following her role in the KBS2 Monday-Tuesday drama Moonshine (Dal-i tteuneun gang), namely Youth of May.

Because the story takes place in Gwangju, the majority of the dialogue is spoken in the Gwangju dialect.

The series deals with the Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, a sensitive historical subject, but was praised for accurately conveying the broad historical facts despite the risk of controversy over historical falsification.

The series is an original drama from the OTT streaming service Wavve and aired simultaneously on KBS2 and was made available on the Wavve platform.