ryuhei kitamura accepted the offer to direct the film due to being unsatisfied with the "godzilla" films of the 80s, 90s and 2000s, stating, "i loved the godzilla movies back in the ’70s, but not so much the ones released in the 1980s and ’90s. godzilla movies back in the ’70s were never just monster movies, there were always messages and themes that reflected the time and world within which they were made, and they combined this so well with straight-out entertainment. they lost that touch in the ’80s".