Early in development, this episode was called “Ezra’s Gambit.” The final episode title, “A Fool’s Hope,” is a reference to a quote from Gandalf.

The clones on Seelos have gotten “a bigger boat” since Season Two, having replaced their AT-TE trawler with their captured AT-AT walker.

Among the support ships blockading Lothal are designs derived from the Imperial dreadnoughts that figured so prominently in the Thrawn Trilogy. They date back to the 1990 Imperial Sourcebook from West End Games.

Produced as a joke for the crew was a version of the Loth-wolf attack sequence that replaced the cries of the stormtroopers with the sound of squeaky chew toys.

The wolves appearing behind Ezra are similar to the fyrnok rising behind him way back in Season One, however now Ezra is in far better control of his emotions and focus.

An earlier draft of the episode’s script included a scene collecting the villains plotting the Empire’s future, which would have called for the inclusion of Director Krennic. He was designed, but ultimately never built as the scene was cut early on.

Hera’s flipping of the Ghost to knock out a pursuing craft (a gunship) was developed for this episode independent of the same maneuver being pulled by the Millennium Falcon against a TIE fighter, as seen in the trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Chronologically, the one in Solo occurs first.