The movie sees the return of Invader ZIM (2001) creator Jhonen Vasquez as executive producer along with the series' principal voice cast. Most artwork was done by newer members.
"What I'm making isn't going to be the best episode of Invader ZIM (2001)," creator Jhonen Vasquez told Polygon just ahead of his appearance at 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. "I would be battling people's childhoods and trying to carve out space for a new favorite thing, and that's the worst attitude to have when making this stuff."
When asked during an interview in July 2018 if they would be up for a TV series revival, the voice cast said they would, while creator Jhonen Vasquez cautioned it could be a "monkey's paw" situation, adding he'll wait and see the reaction to the TV movie first.
Multiple items from Invader ZIM (2001) are shown collected in the Membrane garage. The artist who illustrated this scene said on Twitter that there are at least 58 objects from the show in the garage shot and at least one from every episode.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2018, Jhonen Vasquez explained that Nickelodeon had been asking him about doing more Invader ZIM (2001) for years and that he always had to decline their offers either because he was busy working on something else or due to not being able to come to an agreement with Nickelodeon on a budget for a Invader Zim revival; but being "completely miserable" with the other things he was working on at the time, Jhonen accepted Nickelodeon's latest offer to do more Invader Zim. Nickelodeon initially wanted a new Invader Zim television series, but Jhonen suggested a six-episode miniseries instead. He soon changed his mind to a television movie, since doing a movie would be "infinitely less stressful".