Kôichi Yamadera and Mikako Takahashi, who voice Yoshida Shoyo and the dog Sadaharu in Gintama (2005), reprise their roles for the live-action film.
Director Yûichi Fukuda notes that his work on The Hero Yoshihiko (2011) and Blue Flame (2014) was what convinced "Gintama" author Hideaki Sorachi to do a live-action adaptation.
Yûichi Fukuda cites Mary Poppins (1964) as an influence on the film's design, saying that it had unrealistic VFX which worked in making the film look like a live-action fantasy.
In the "Gintama" manga comic, Kagura briefly takes on the alias of Kanna, after Kagura's actor Kanna Hashimoto.