Scavengers Reign is based on Scavengers, a 2016 short film created by Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner for Adult Swim, where it aired as part of the Toonami block before later being uploaded to Huettner's YouTube channel.

The original eight-minute short film had no dialogue and depicted two humans engaging in an intricate, Rube Goldberg machine-like series of interactions with the planet's lifeforms, with backgrounds inspired by the artist Moebius.

Between 2018 and 2019, Bennett and Huettner expanded the short into a series pilot that was ultimately not picked up by Adult Swim, before the show found a home at HBO Max.

The 12-episode series was produced over two years by Titmouse, Inc. and Green Street Pictures, with a crew of international animators working remotely from locations including Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and France.

Alia Shawkat voices dual roles in the series, playing both Levi, a robot stranded with Azi, and Fiona, the Demeter's robotics engineer and Kamen's estranged wife.

Critics repeatedly compared the show's visual style to the work of French artist Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, echoing the same influence cited for the original 2016 short film.

The series holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 critic reviews, with an average score of 8.7/10.

At the 76th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the series was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program and won Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for background design.

After Max canceled the series following its first season in May 2024, Netflix acquired it and released it on May 31, 2024 in the US, UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, but ultimately also decided not to renew it for a second season, which co-creator Joe Bennett confirmed in November 2024 while releasing a trailer showing what had been planned for season two.