The movie was already planned before the book was released, and although director Francis Lawrence saw a manuscript of the novel as early as the summer of 2024, production did not really get underway until after the book was out in March 2025, with filming due to start in July.
Jesse Plemons, who plays a younger version of Philip Seymour Hoffman's Plutarch Heavensbee, previously portrayed the son of Hoffman's character in The Master (2012).