Original spec script for Trigger Warning was written by Josh Olson and John Brancato way back in 2016, five years before the film was made, and eight years before it was eventually released. The spec was described as "female versions of First Blood (1982) and John Wick (2014)" mixed together. It was written as almost an homage to the 80's and 90's action films, ones which always had tons of over the top practical action sequences, bloody violence, and female nudity, much like their spec script for this film. Like for example, it included scenes such as Parker, the main heroine, having a shower scene during night when suddenly several men break into her home to sexually assault her and she has to fight them off while she's fully nude. Interestingly, considering how the script was compared to it, there is a similar scene in the original First Blood novel where John Rambo fights his way out of police station and then gets chased while he's completely naked.
Thunder Road Films bought the spec in 2016, with Basil Iwanyk (best known as producer of John Wick films) and Erica Lee attached to produce the film. In May 2020 Netflix got involved in the project, Jessica Alba was cast to star in the film and she was also one of the producers on it, and Indonesian director Mouly Surya was hired to direct the film, making it her first English-language film. In September 2021, screenwriter and former actress Halley Gross was brought in to re-write the original script, and this was right after she co-wrote the video game The Last of Us Part II (2020), for which she won some awards. The filming took place in New Mexico in fall of 2021, between September and October. But then Netflix shelved the film for over two and a half years, before finally releasing it.