Some of the actors who auditioned for the part of Remo Williams claimed to be proficient in the martial art of Sinanju, not realizing it was a fiction derived from "The Destroyer" novels on which the movie was based.
The producers were hoping to create a James Bond-style franchise by adapting "The Destroyer" novels by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, and therefore hired Bond screenwriter Christopher Wood to pen the script. Bond director Guy Hamilton was hired to direct. Remo was considered a "blue-collar James Bond".
Joel Grey was offered the role of Chiun several times before accepting it. He kept turning it down because he didn't think he was the right kind of actor for the part, and he had no previous martial arts experience (and received none once he was cast). What changed Grey's mind was a meeting with Carl Fullerton, the film's make-up artist. Grey said he would take the part if Fullerton could successfully make Grey look like an 80-year-old Korean. Fullerton gave it his best shot. He got an Oscar nomination for his work.
Although the Statue of Liberty was undergoing renovation in preparation for its centennial when the film was made, the filmmakers shot on and around the actual statue and its scaffolding as well as on a full-sized replica (from just below Liberty's book to the top of her torch) which was constructed in Mexico City. Because of weather and scheduling, the sequence required additional photography during the summer following the original mid-December (New York) and late-February (Mexico) shoots. Two different locations photographed during three separate time periods illustrates the value of storyboards and thorough pre-visualization.
A TV pilot was made and aired, but never went to series. Jeffrey Meek was cast as Remo Williams and Roddy McDowall as Chiun. Craig Safan remained as the series composer.