"Metal Gear" creator Hideo Kojima suggested Hugh Jackman, Viggo Mortensen, and Luca Marinelli for the role of Solid Snake.
Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts spoke on this film: "The beauty of Metal Gear and the reason I give our producers and the studio a ton of credit is because I went in and said, 'Let's embrace the fact that this is weird.' Let's embrace the fact that there are supernatural elements to this game that are horror elements to this game. Let's embrace the fact that there are weird Japanese quirkiness and idiosyncrasies and oddities that are all framed around this very self-serious world and let's lean into those things and let's have it be unique and unlike anything else because it represents those things and let's have the rest of the world fall in love with it because of that as opposed to trying to make it something else."
Jordan Vogt-Roberts directed Kong: Skull Island (2017) where in a scene, a boat bears the name Gray Fox as an homage to the character of the same name in the series.
Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is a fan of Metal Gear Solid, and is friends with creator Hideo Kojima.
Hideo Kojima recommended modern artist Ólafur Eliasson for the film's production design, saying his work was "essential for experience".