Plans for a remake at Fox date back to 2002, when a 2003 release date was under consideration to mark the 30-year anniversary of the musical which spawned the film, a remake for which former Broadway producer Gail Berman would have been involved as co-producer. MTV had planned a remake, set for 2008 and for which Berman was again tapped to produce, but both plans fell through.
On April 10, 2015, it was announced that Kenny Ortega, best known for directing the film Hocus Pocus, the High School Musical trilogy, and Michael Jackson's This Is It, would direct the remake. On October 21, 2015, Emmy Award nominee Laverne Cox, best known for her role as prisoner Sophia Burset on Netflix's prison comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black, joined the cast to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the mad-scientist role originated by Tim Curry in the 1970s. Curry, in turn, was cast as the Criminologist, which had been played by Charles Gray in the original. , who produced the original film, also co-produced the remake, along with and Kenny Ortega; Ortega also directed and choreographed the film. The creative team planned "to stick faithfully to the text and the score of the original but greatly re-imagine the story visually".