Due to adverse reaction at preview screenings, Warner Bros instructed the director, Bill Forsyth, to trim the film by 40 minutes as well as adding narration and a happy ending. Forsyth subsequently disowned the film as a result.
The language spoken by the woman Hector encounters and falls in love with in the Middle Ages is Friulian, a variety of Ladin which is spoken in northeastern Italy.
The language spoken by the Barbarian raiders in the first story is Irish Gaelic.
Due to negative test screenings, the film was almost released direct to video. However, after Robin Williams had a massive box office success with Mrs. Doubtfire - Mammo per sempre (1993), the studio hoped to capitalize on that success and released the film theatrically five and a half months later in May of 1994.