Batman Returns was made after Tim Burton agreed to direct a sequel only once he had greater creative authority, since he had been frustrated by producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters, who controlled much of the first film's direction. Warner Bros. wanted a weirder, hipper Burton film and planned to reuse the Gotham sets. Burton hired writer Daniel Waters, who reimagined the Penguin as a deformed human-bird hybrid abandoned as a baby, mirroring Batman's trauma. Danny DeVito was persuaded to take the role, and Waters's Max Shreck replaced Two-Face as an industrialist villain. The first draft, at 160 pages, was judged too outlandish and expensive, costing an estimated $400 million to produce.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.