The film is a retelling of the story of Empress Elisabeth of Austria told from the point-of-view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray, who served the Empress until the day she died. Director Frauke Finsterwalder said in the film's press release: "Films should always create a new myth. I want to show that Empress Elisabeth was a radical, intelligent and modern woman, far more than the Sissi with the double S that we all know. Elisabeth was simply born a century too early."
Originally announced in 2019 and scheduled to start shooting in Autumn 2020, but filming had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Filmed between September 20, 2021 and November 15, 2021.
The release date was originally scheduled for Spring 2022, but it had to be postponed to 2023 due to another film about Empress Elisabeth of Austria being released in Germany and Austria in 2022: Marie Kreutzer's 'Corsage', although this film had been announced two years before Kreutzer's film.
After Sisi (2009) and Sisi (2021) it is the film about Empress Elisabeth of Austria to user her real nickname, "Sisi" with a single "S" in the title. Most film and TV adaptations incorrectly spell it as "Sissi" with a double "S" because of the "Sissi" trilogy from the 1950s starring Romy Schneider in the title role. Elisabeth herself spelled it as "Sisi".