The episodes were written by showrunner Scott Buck, directed by Roel Reiné, and star Anson Mount as Black Bolt alongside Serinda Swan, Ken Leung, Eme Ikwuakor, Isabelle Cornish, Ellen Woglom, and Iwan Rheon.

Filming began in March 2017, at the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point airfield in Kalaeloa, Hawaii and various locations on the island of Oahu.

The Royal Family attend a Terrigenesis ceremony, where the young Inhuman citizens Iridia and Bronaja are exposed to Terrigen Mist to reveal their abilities.

Maximus talks to Kitang, the head of the Genetic Council, and reveals a plan to stage a coup to remove Black Bolt and Medusa from the throne.

Crystal has her dog Lockjaw send Karnak to safety on Earth, and does the same with Medusa and Black Bolt, but gets captured by Maximus's guards.

Realizing they have all been stranded and separated on Earth, Karnak and Medusa begin to search for Black Bolt, and Gorgon uses his communication device to contact Maximus, hoping it will be tracked so the fight will come to him.

[19] Buck felt working with IMAX "gave us a lot more freedom and pushed and encouraged us to think a little bit bigger than we would if it was just a normal network show.

"[15] Loeb cautioned that Inhumans was "a television show that is premiering in an IMAX theater" rather than a true film, but that it would still be a spectacle, and "a unique way to be able to see TV".

[21] Buck served as writer for both episodes,[22] and said that they were intended to be "something that absolutely stands on its own", but hoped would "intrigue people enough to make them want to watch the rest of the show."

[23] At the start of March, the series added Serinda Swan as Medusa,[4] Ken Leung as Karnak,[5] Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal,[6] and Ellen Woglom as Louise.

[6] They are joined in the episodes by Nicola Peltz,[9] Marco Rodriguez as Kitang,[24] Tom Wright as George Ashland,[10] Michael Buie as Agon, Tanya Clarke as Rynda,[11] and Ty Quiamboa as Holo.

[12] Additional guests include Ari Dalbert as Bronaja,[25] Aaron Hendry as Loyolis, Stephanie Anne Lewis as Paripon, Andra Nechita as Iridia, Garret T. Sato as the lead mercenary, Allen Clifford Cole as an outspoken Inhuman,[24] Lofton Shaw as young Black Bolt,[11] V.I.P.

as young Medusa, Jason Lee Hoy as Royal Guard Sergeant, Steve Trzaska as Duodon, Jenna Bleu Forti as the lovely Inhuman server, Jason Quinn as Pulsus,[24] Kala Alexander as Makani, Albert Ueligitone as Pablo,[12] Moses Goods as Eldrac,[10] Dan Cooke as a cowboy, Nolan Hong as a tourist, Brutus LaBenz as a cabbie, Tani Fujimoto-Kim as a clerk, Rick Agan as a police officer, Lopaka Kapanui as a police lieutenant, and Miriam Lucien as a serene Inhuman.

Crystal's bedroom was designed to be able to fit Lockjaw, her 2,000-pound (910 kg) dog; because he can teleport, the set's door frames did not have to be sized to the character, but areas such as where he sleeps in her room did.

Reiné noted the crew spent the first three days of filming taking "a lot of different shots, that have different flavors, different lenses, different locations, different characters and we mixed them together in kind of a test" to screen on IMAX and assess how the project was turning out.

[42] A full trailer for the series was screened exclusively at ABC's advertiser upfront presentation on May 17, with reactions praising the visuals for Lockjaw.

He noted that in the comics the Inhumans have "extremely melodramatic" stories, which would require the series to have "a deft writing hand and a sizable special effects budget.

[35] However, Katharine Trendacosta at io9 felt the footage only made the series "look a bit less terrible" and noted "all the dialogue in these scenes are stilted and stiff.

"[47] Ethan Anderton with /Film enjoyed seeing Black Bolt communicate with sign language, but felt the footage was "more like a melodramatic soap opera" with "no power behind the drama" than something compelling like Game of Thrones.

He concluded that the series is "trying to have a compelling power struggle, but it doesn't come through in the performances", comparing it to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.

"[2] In the United States for the television broadcast on ABC, the episodes received a 0.9/4 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, according to Nielsen Media Research.

He felt the costumes and makeup looked like cosplay, the dialogue was "clunky", as if it was from the first draft of a script", and the story did not "have the scope, scale, or polish to make use of" the IMAX release.

He also criticized the episode recap flashbacks halfway through the IMAX version, and felt that having Buck as showrunner, who also worked on the poorly reviewed first season of Iron Fist, "speaks volumes as to why Inhumans is just as misguided in its approach and execution.

"[70] David Pepose of Newsarama also gave the episodes a 4 out of 10, feeling "Buck's instincts to rely more on his characters than on his plot is a good instinct—but because the acting and the production values seem so wooden, that makes the overall arc of this series seem more threadbare than ambitious".

Despite calling Mount "the show's MVP", enjoying the "visually epic" location shots of Hawaii and CGI vista, and feeling "the themes at the heart of the series [were] compelling, with plenty of potential," he took issue with the "flat, uninspired screenplay" from Buck.

Although she felt Lockjaw was the series "main saving grace", ultimately, "In concentrating on making a splash with its IMAX premiere, [the episodes] refuses to push boundaries in other, more important areas.

Pulliam-Moore specifically noted how Attilan looked like badly rendered video game cutscenes, that interior scenes were clearly shot on a sound stage, and Medusa's hair movement seemed to be created with the caliber of special effects from a 1990s film.

[73] Giving the episodes a "C−", Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly felt they included every boring way to portray a fantasy civilization, and were already "stalling, or running out the clock... [Inhumans] represents all the worst instincts of Marvel's TV arm.

Keene felt some of the bright spots of the episodes were Lockjaw, and Medusa once she is exiled to Earth, but ultimately concluded, "Marvel's excessively miscalculated series is nearly performance art.

[75] Maureen Ryan, writing for Variety, felt Iron Fist looked "like Citizen Kane next to this slapped-together, incoherent, cheap-looking mess...