[4] Berg has said he was inspired to create the series after reading about the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre and started researching it.

The series incorporates real events, such as the massacre depicted in the pilot, along with the stories of actual people who lived during the 1857 Utah War.

Real-life characters such as Jim Bridger, a pioneer caught between warring factions; Brigham Young, the leader of the LDS Church who commanded his army known as the Nauvoo Legion; and Wild Bill Hickman, a lawman and a member of this militia, were incorporated.

[3] In January 2023, Dane DeHaan, Jai Courtney, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Kyle Davis, Nick Hargrove, Derek Hinkey, Saura Lightfoot-Leon, Preston Mota, Shawnee Pourier and Joe Tippett joined the cast.

[3][9] Explosions in the Sky, the post-rock band that previously worked with Berg on the Friday Night Lights film (2005) and Lone Survivor (2013), composed the series music.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Handsomely shot and thoroughly grim, American Primeval drives home its point about a nation's bone-deep savagery to persuasive, and sometimes deadening, effect".