Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment officially announced Croft's casting as Rachel Roth on August 3, 2017. At that moment, Croft was just 13 years and 3 months old. She was the first cast member officially locked in for the series, even before Brenton Thwaites or Anna Diop were publicly attached to the project.
Principal photography for the freshman season kicked off in Toronto, Ontario, on November 14, 2017, operating under the working title Freebirds. Croft was 13 years and 6 months old when cameras first rolled. Filming on the initial 11-episode order spanned seven grueling winter and spring months, eventually wrapping on June 28, 2018. Croft celebrated her 14th birthday on set on April 23, 2018, meaning she shot the second half of the season, including the emotionally heavy church confrontation and Trigon-influenced sequences, as a freshly minted 14-year-old.
By the time Titans held its world premiere at New York Comic Con on October 3, 2018, followed by its streaming rollout on DC Universe on October 12, 2018, Croft was 14 years and 5 months old. Viewers watching the pilot episode were seeing footage of an actress who was barely past middle-school age navigating complex supernatural horror.