Kate Winslet was attached for a long time to star in the lead role. Jessica Biel then replaced her with Gerard Butler as Laurent. In the fall of 2011, Elizabeth Olsen was announced as a replacement in the lead role.
Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson were set to star as Therese Raquin and Laurent LeClaire respectively in a 1995 adaptation directed by David Leveaux but the project never happened.
This film reunites two Harry Potter cast members: Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle and Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy.
Elizabeth Olsen and Oscar Isaac have both appeared in Marvel comics properties. Olsen is Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch in the Marvel Cinematic Universe while Isaac is En Sabah Nurr / Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Moon Knight in Moon Knight (2022), which is also set in the MCU.