When the novel was published in 2003, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights for $2 million, with executive Brad Grey hiring Johnny Depp to star due to his stated love for the book, initially based on a script written by author Gregory David Roberts himself.

Warner Bros. hired screenwriter Eric Roth in October 2005 to rewrite the script and brought on Peter Weir to direct, but Weir departed in June 2006 due to differing interpretations between the director, studio, and producers, and was replaced by Mira Nair in January 2007.

Production plans repeatedly collapsed over the years due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, script readiness issues, and scheduling conflicts from filming across India and New Mexico, leading The Independent to report the project cancelled in November 2008.

In 2013, after Warner Bros. retained the film rights, Johnny Depp approached Joel Edgerton to take over the lead role while Depp stayed on as producer, and Garth Davis was in early talks to make his feature directing debut on the project, though this version also never materialized.

The film rights were acquired by Anonymous Content and Paramount Television Studios in January 2018 to turn the story into a television series, with Apple TV+ announcing its adaptation in June 2018 as one of the platform's first international productions.

Alexander Siddig's role as crime lord Khader Khan was rumored to have originally been intended for Amitabh Bachchan, an idea proposed by former director Mira Nair.

Original showrunner Eric Warren Singer took over a year to write the series and stepped down in February 2020 citing scheduling conflicts caused by production delays; Steve Lightfoot was hired as his replacement in November 2020 and completed writing the remaining episodes.

Filming began in October 2019 in Australia before moving to India in November 2019, but was suspended in February 2020 due to a writing backlog and further halted by COVID-19 restrictions and the Indian monsoon season; production later relocated partly to Thailand because of India's worsening COVID-19 outbreak before wrapping in Melbourne in December 2021.