A previous attempt to revive Hawaii Five-O was a one-hour pilot made in 1996, produced and written by Stephen J. Cannell, intended to star Gary Busey and Russell Wong, but it never aired. Original cast member James MacArthur briefly returned in that unaired pilot, this time playing the governor of Hawaii.

Before Peter M. Lenkov's reboot, Warner Bros. also attempted to turn the Hawaii Five-O concept into a feature film, but that project was scrapped as well.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who scripted the pilot, decided to fully reboot the original concept rather than make it a direct sequel, using an approach similar to their work on the 2009 Star Trek film.

The 2010 series uses a zero (Five-0) instead of the letter O in its title reportedly because of search engine optimization concerns; a CBS insider said Google searches returned far more results for 'Hawaii Five-O' with the letter than with the zero.

In the original 1968 series, the character Kono was male, but the reboot changed Kono's gender to female (played by Grace Park) so the task force would not be entirely without women.

James MacArthur, the last surviving main cast member of the original series, agreed to guest-star in a first-season episode of the reboot but died on October 28, 2010, before he could film his appearance.

Several actors connected to the original series appear in the reboot: Al Harrington (who played Det. Ben Kokua originally) plays McGarrett's friend Mamo Kahike, and Dennis Chun, son of original Chin Ho Kelly actor Kam Fong Chun, plays Sgt. Duke Lukela.

Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park both departed the series after season seven due to a salary dispute with CBS; they had sought pay equality with co-stars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan, but CBS's final offer was 10-15% lower than what the two male leads earned.

The exteriors representing Five-0 headquarters are filmed at the Ali'iolani Hale in Honolulu, directly across the street from Iolani Palace, which had served as the Five-O headquarters location in the original series.

In a 2013 episode titled 'Kapu,' the ending was determined by online viewer voting, with separate outcomes for the Eastern/Central time zones and the Mountain/Pacific time zones; each alternate ending was made available online after broadcast.

Steve McGarrett's car homage to the original series includes restoring his father's 1974 Mercury Marquis, which is the actual car driven by Jack Lord in the latter half of the original series; the vehicle has belonged to stuntman John Nordlum since the original series ended and still carries the license plate F6-3958.

Critics initially received an early copy of the pilot featuring a reworked synthesizer and guitar-based version of Morton Stevens' original theme song; after strong negative online reaction, producer Alex Kurtzman had studio musicians, including three who played on the 1968 original, rerecord the theme exactly as it was, only shortened to 30 seconds.

Hawaii Five-0 entered the Guinness World Records 2012 for Highest-Rated New Show in the U.S. after its January 23, 2011 episode 'Kai e'e' drew a record 19.34 million viewers.

The show's popularity boosted Hawaii's local economy: visits to the USS Missouri Memorial rose 25 percent in 2010, Waiola Shave Ice (the business run by the character Kamekona) saw a 20 percent increase in shave ice sales, and Kona Brewing Company saw a 60 percent sales increase after its beer was featured as McGarrett's favorite drink.