The idea of a fighter who uses poison in the Street Fighter games was originally considered during the development of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, when the team members had a debate on including Remy (a character with a playstyle similar to Guile's) or a different, poison-using character.

Capcom eventually decided to implement this idea with the SFV newcomer, F.A.N.G.

The game was unofficially revealed through a YouTube video on December 5, 2014, which was promptly taken down. It was officially revealed the next day during the 2014 PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas and was announced as being developed exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.

The character R. Mika will give herself a buttslap right after activating her Critical Art. In early footage of the game, the camera focused on R. Mika's butt while this happened, but this was later changed so that the camera is repositioned higher up to cut out the view. Additionally, R. Mika and her partner no longer split the opponent's legs.

In a December 2015 article by DualShockers, Producer Yoshinori Ono stated this change was made because they wanted to avoid making players uncomfortable and that the choice was not influenced by external factors. However, in an interview featured in the Best of III webshow, Capcom's Director of Brand Marketing and Esports Matt Dahlgren stated that this change was done due to issues regarding the game's rating, as they wanted to appeal to a very wide audience and keep Street Fighter "a family-friendly franchise".

In a Gamespot article published in January 2016, Ono reiterated that the change was made to avoid making people uncomfortable. However, this time he said that the team took in consideration the criticism that certain characters were too sexualized, contradicting his earlier statement that this change was done without external influence.

When Rashid was unveiled as a playable character in Street Fighter V, his specific nationality was unknown, with players only knowing that he was Middle Eastern. However, in 2022 when the entire playable base game roster and first wave of DLC of Street Fighter 6 was leaked, it revealed a more specific country he was from, with Rashid confirmed as being Saudi Arabian.