Beverly Hills, 90210 creator Darren Star was not involved in developing the spin-off; the only surviving link to the original series was believed to be the talent agency Creative Artists Agency, which conceived the spin-off idea.

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas initially wrote a detailed pilot breakdown, but on April 14, 2008, he stepped back from the project to focus on two pilots he was developing for ABC, leading Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah to be hired as executive producers and rewrite the script to be edgier and more grounded in reality.

In Thomas's original version, the main family was named Mills and the mother was called Celia; Sachs and Judah changed the surname to Wilson and the mother's name to Debbie when they rewrote the script.

The character Navid Shirazi was created to reflect the real demographic of the Beverly Hills school, where around 40 percent of students were of Persian descent.

The role of Annie Wilson, which went to Shenae Grimes, was originally offered to Hilary Duff, who turned it down because she was dissatisfied with the pilot script.

Jennie Garth agreed to reprise her role without even reading a script, after brainstorming ideas directly with producer Gabe Sachs, and turned down an offer to be a series regular in favor of a recurring role.

Rob Estes, who played Harry Wilson, was the last actor cast; he was originally sought for the role but was under contract to the drama Women's Murder Club, and only became available after that show was canceled.

Tori Spelling left the series in 2008 after discovering she was being paid $20,000 per episode, far less than the $40,000–$50,000 per episode salaries of Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty; when her request for a raise was denied, she departed the show entirely.

Joe E. Tata's casting as a recurring cast member came about almost by accident, after a friend of producer Gabe Sachs happened to spot him in a store, prompting an offer that Tata enthusiastically accepted.

One of the show's filming locations was a complex on Waverly Drive in the Los Feliz neighborhood, designed by architect Bernard Maybeck in 1927 and best known as the convent of Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Streaming versions of the series differ from the original broadcast and home media releases because the original soundtracks were replaced due to licensing fees.