The series was announced in September 2015, following Jenna Coleman's decision to leave Doctor Who to take on the lead role of Queen Victoria.

Writer Daisy Goodwin proposed a Christmas special for the 2016 series, but ITV rejected it; a special was later commissioned for 2017 after the show's ratings popularity rose.

ITV administration reportedly expected Victoria to run for a total of six series, though it was uncertain whether Jenna Coleman would remain as lead as the story moved into the Queen's later years; as of July 2021 ITV said there were no plans to film further series.

Producers Mammoth Screen used Screen Yorkshire's newly launched Church Fenton Studios, a converted aircraft hangar at Leeds East Airport near Selby, as the central base to recreate Buckingham Palace, making Victoria the first production to film there.

Mammoth Screen spent seven months filming the first series in Yorkshire, using locations such as Castle Howard (as Kensington Palace), Harewood House, Bramham Park and Wentworth Woodhouse (as Buckingham Palace), Carlton Towers (as Windsor Castle), and Beverley Minster (as Westminster Abbey).

Filming on the third series began in May 2018, timed to start right after Jenna Coleman finished shooting another series, The Cry, in Australia, which had run from February to May 2018.

Parts of Liverpool's Georgian quarter were used as exterior filming locations for the third series.

The theme song was composed by Martin Phipps and performed by the Mediæval Bæbes; Phipps wrote and conducted the incidental music for the early episodes before Ruth Barrett took over conducting duties for later episodes.

Actress Margaret Clunie noted that her character Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, was given a fictional romance with Prince Ernest in the show despite the real Duchess having a famously happy marriage to the Duke of Sutherland and 11 children together.

The show took liberties with real historical figures, such as depicting Diana Rigg's character, the Duchess of Buccleuch, as elderly and curmudgeonly even though the real woman was in her 30s at court, and portraying Robert Peel's secretary Edward Drummond in a fictional same-sex relationship despite no historical evidence of it; Drummond's shooting was also fictionalized in date and circumstance.

Historian Christine Kinealy stated there is no evidence Queen Victoria had real compassion for the Irish during the famine, contradicting the show's depiction; the show's Irish clergyman character Robert Traill never actually met Victoria, but creator Daisy Goodwin said his story was used to illustrate how the Irish were treated by the British government.