Invisible Boys is adapted from the novel of the same name by Holden Sheppard, which was optioned by director Nicholas Verso in 2020.

Stan officially announced the drama as a commissioned series in 2023, with Nicholas Verso adapting, writing and directing alongside co-writers Enoch Mailangi, Allan Clarke, Holden Sheppard and Declan Greene.

Production began in March 2024, with the 10-part series filmed on location in Geraldton, Western Australia, including Sunset Beach, the Ocean Road Hotel, the foreshore and the Macedonian club.

The show shifts the novel's setting to 2017 in order to frame the story around the Australian same-sex marriage plebiscite, a change not present in the original book.

The character Hammer was reworked into a First Nations character who faces racism in addition to grappling with his sexuality, a significant departure from the source novel.

Matt's farm-set storyline was substantially rewritten from the book, and several female characters—Bec, Sabrina, Rochelle, Nadine and Karla—were expanded, alongside new characters like Aunty Doris and Ian Orcher.

Critic Damien O'Meara praised the series for resisting gay respectability politics, noting that its portrayal of a 'horny gay teen' is not sanitized or hidden away.

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen of Guardian Australia criticized the series for veering close to 'trauma porn' and reinforcing the cliché that queerness is inseparable from relentless trauma.