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The film's villain is Kuze, who is a terrorist cyborg. His character is an amalgamation that incorporates elements of several villains from the franchise such as that of the Laughing Man, a hacker from the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002) series who wears a parka coat, the Puppetmaster, a villain from the original Ghost in the Shell (1995) film, and is primarily based on Hideo Kuze, a member of the Individual 11, and childhood friend of Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG - Individual Eleven (2006).
In an establishing shot of the city, a Pan Am advert can be seen in the top left. The bankrupt airlines inclusion is a reference to Blade Runner (1982) which also had an in-film advert for them.
The Geisha robots wore full head masks created by Weta Workshop and modeled after Japanese actress Rila Fukushima. The opening or 'exploding' of the Geisha's heads was mechanical rather than CGI. The inner workings of the heads were modeled after clockwork technology.
Several scenes in this film are exact in visual comparison to the original Ghost in the Shell (1995). Some parts shown in the city are even exact re-creations of the original artwork.
For the Japanese dub of the film, the voice actors from Ghost in the Shell (1995) - Atsuko Tanaka (the Major), Akio Ôtsuka (Batou) and Kôichi Yamadera (Togusa) - reprise their roles.
Mamoru Oshii, the Japanese director of the original Ghost in the Shell (1995), has spoken out against the whitewashing controversy surrounding Scarlett Johansson playing Major despite not being Japanese. He gave her his blessing and said "I believe having Scarlett play Motoko was the best possible casting for this movie."