The series was created by Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong and is primarily based on Christopher Pike's 1994 novel The Midnight Club, but it also weaves in adaptations of short stories from 27 other Pike novels told as tales within the show.

Mike Flanagan revealed he was profoundly inspired by Nickelodeon's horror anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark? when developing the show.

Flanagan planned for the series to adapt all '28 books' by Christopher Pike across multiple seasons, pitching it as 'The Midnight Club — but the stories the kids tell each other will be other Christopher Pike books.'

Mike Flanagan's sibling Jamie, who co-wrote and co-produced the show, revealed that the supernatural 'club' subplot was not part of the writers' original vision but was added at the request of Netflix executives who wanted a supernatural element after the success of Stranger Things.

Heather Langenkamp, best known as Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street, was cast as Dr. Georgina Stanton, the doctor running the Brightcliffe hospice.

Production began on March 15, 2021 in Burnaby, British Columbia and was originally scheduled to wrap on September 8, 2021, but actually finished on September 10, 2021.

The first two episodes were directed by Mike Flanagan himself, while the remaining episodes were directed by Axelle Carolyn, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Michael Fimognari, Morgan Beggs, and Viet Nguyen.

The first episode of the series set a Guinness World Record for the most scripted jump-scares in a single television episode, with 21 jump-scares.

Despite generally favorable reviews (85% on Rotten Tomatoes) and 90.31 million hours viewed on Netflix between October 2 and October 23, 2022, the series was canceled by Netflix on December 1, 2022 after just one season.

After the cancellation, Mike Flanagan revealed on his Tumblr what had been planned for future seasons, including the ultimate fates of the characters and answers to the show's unresolved mysteries.