General Commander was originally envisaged and marketed as a television series following "a top secret, rogue international paramilitary unit that fights major criminal organisations in a bid to stop World War III", based on a screenplay by Philipe Martinez and Bey Logan and produced by SPI International and Saradan Media. The series would have had nine episodes each with a runtime of 45 minutes.
Filming lasted a total of two weeks, however this was interrupted briefly due to friction between Seagal and the then novice actor Markus Ramirez, who refused to work with "someone who requires a body double for his walking scenes" and vacated the set. This marks Seagal's eleventh Film where editing lasted longer than actual filming.
While shooting scenes for General Commander, lead actor Steven Seagal also redid some scenes in the film Attrition that was also set in the Philippines.
Principal photography began in December 2017 in Manila. Filming took approximately nine months.
Seagal insisted that the cast and crew refer to him as Mr General Commander at all times, he explained this would help him stay in character. However this did little to help him as he kept forgetting his lines and even the name of the movie he was making.