After the success of Angie Thomas' young adult novel The Hate U Give, director and producer George Tillman Jr. was anxious to bring it to the screen. As an article about Tillman in Shoot states, "After wrapping The Longest Ride for Fox 2000, Tillman championed an unpublished book, The Hate U Give, which he brought to Fox 2000 and they purchased it for him to direct and produce." Tillman assembled the team and championed the project from start to finish.
Tillman read the book when it was still just a manuscript, and in an interview said of the work, "It was a story I had never seen told that way before—the idea of this character trying to find her identity, having to code-switch to fit into her school environment. The shooting by a white police officer opened up a lot of conversations, issues in society, and questions that this girl was asking from an innocent place." With a screenplay by Audrey Wells, Tillman began principal photography in September 2017 in Georgia and wrapped in April.
At the time of its release, the film, and particularly Tillman's direction, was met with widespread acclaim. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote of the film, and of Tillman's touch, "In a multiplex content to numb us with comic-book escapism, Tillman’s film snaps like a livewire. It means to shake you—and does."
