The first season is based on the 2015 book Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto's Last War, by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards; a dramatisation of the rise and fall of the real-life Rizzuto crime family, a Montreal-based mafia organisation. The second season veers from the book and is fully fictionalized.
Initially intended as a miniseries, in March 2018, Rogers Media renewed the show for a second season. The second season, along with being broadcast on Citytv, was also broadcast on FX Canada. In November 2018, Netflix announced that it would distribute the series internationally, which began with the first season on December 7, 2018.
Filmed in Chelmsford, Ontario
Although the second season features Hamilton none of it was actually filmed in the city. The only exception is the occasional shot of the city skyline.
Bad Blood is filmed in Montreal, Quebec and Sudbury, Ontario, with the first season set in Montreal, and the second season also featuring Hamilton.