Following the 2007 film adaptation of The Mist directed by Frank Darabont, executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein announced plans to develop a miniseries based on that film rather than directly on Stephen King's original 1980 novella.

A 10-part miniseries was announced to begin production under the Weinsteins' Dimension Television banner in November 2013, but it remained unclear whether Frank Darabont would be involved, and development stalled for a long period.

Nearly two years after the project was first announced, Dimension Television signed screenwriter Christian Torpe in September 2015 to write the entire series.

The series was cast and went into production in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in July 2016.

The ten episodes of the first season were produced on a budget of approximately CA$23 million, with the Nova Scotia government contributing CA$5.9 million, making it the biggest entertainment production ever to shoot in the province.

After a strong-rated pilot episode, viewership rapidly declined, with the series averaging only 462,000 viewers per episode and a 0.14 rating among adults 18-49 by its end.

Spike cancelled The Mist on September 27, 2017, just weeks after the finale aired, following mixed reviews that praised its atmosphere and special effects but criticized its story, performances, and unfaithfulness to King's source material.