The series is the first-ever series adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, after previous film adaptations.

Creator Steven Zaillian pitched the project himself and chose the series format specifically to be more faithful to the story, tone and subtleties of Highsmith's work, trying to approach the adaptation as he imagined Highsmith herself might.

The series was originally developed for Showtime, but in February 2023 it was announced that it would move to Netflix instead, where it eventually premiered.

Andrew Scott was cast as Tom Ripley as early as September 2019, with Johnny Flynn joining as Dickie Greenleaf in January 2020 and Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood in March 2021, meaning the cast came together over roughly a year and a half.

John Malkovich, who had previously played Ripley himself in the 2002 film Ripley's Game, was cast in this series as a different character, Reeves Minot.

Andrew Scott described the role as mentally and physically demanding, saying he had to find the courage to create his own version of the character rather than play into previous audience perceptions of Ripley, and found the character's emotional 'blankness' particularly arduous to portray.

Filming was originally scheduled to begin in Italy in September 2020 but was delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cinematographer Robert Elswit shot all eight episodes on Arri Alexa LF digital cameras, and the entire series is presented in black and white.

The only color shown in the whole series is a set of red bloody cat paw prints on steps at the end of episode 5; Zaillian said he was inspired by a black-and-white photograph on the cover of his copy of the Ripley novel and held that image in mind while writing.

At the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, Ripley received 14 nominations and won four, including Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Steven Zaillian; it also won a Peabody Award.