Development of a Carrie TV adaptation dates back to 2002, when MGM Television produced a backdoor pilot television film that NBC ultimately passed on. A separate miniseries was also in development at FX in 2019 but was never ordered.

The project stemmed from Mike Flanagan's first-look overall TV deal with Amazon Studios signed in December 2022; he initially wanted to launch a Dark Tower series but found it too complicated to get greenlit, so Amazon instead proposed adapting Carrie as the deal's launch title.

Mike Flanagan considers Brian De Palma's 1976 film a faithful and beautiful adaptation, so rather than retreading old ground, he built a new take using the source novel's ingredients, expanding the short novel into a longform eight-episode story.

Flanagan mines underused material from the original novel, such as its fictional 911 calls, police reports, courtroom testimonies and scientific investigations, which previous adaptations like De Palma's ignored; this thread reveals Carrie as part of a wider group of telekinetic women, a subplot the series begins exploring from episode two.

Flanagan and his team auditioned more than a thousand actresses for the role of Carrie White, noting many candidates unintentionally emulated Sissy Spacek's 1976 performance even though the team tried to avoid that comparison; Summer H. Howell was cast despite bearing a physical resemblance to Spacek because her performance was distinct enough to override that concern.

Mike Flanagan wrote the role of Margaret White specifically for Samantha Sloyan, calling it 'the part she was born to play' and comparing it to her corrupt character Bev Keane in his Netflix series Midnight Mass, while noting the show takes a different approach to Margaret than prior versions.

Around the same period, Flanagan had pitched and developed the DC film Clayface, but became unavailable to direct it due to his commitments to Carrie and The Exorcist: Martyrs, leading to James Watkins being hired instead.

Principal photography took place in Vancouver, Canada, running from June 16, 2025 to October 25, 2025.

The Newton Brothers were announced as the composers for the series' score.