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This was the first movie Marvel Studios financed entirely on its own, rather than licensing a character out to another studio. It was also the opening chapter of a planned six-picture distribution deal with Paramount, which later got reshuffled once Disney bought Marvel outright.
The 2024 PS5 remaster added a roguelike mode called No Return, where you fight through randomised encounters as one of ten unlockable characters, including Joel, Tommy, Dina, and even a couple of names from Abby's side of the story. Each character controls a bit differently, so runs never quite feel the same twice.
Standing outside the Villa Auditore as Desmond and activating Eagle Vision reveals a trail of red footprints leading to the Assassin insignia, an unused navigational aid the developers later admitted was an oversight, since red was meant to signal danger, not direction.
Amazon officially greenlit the series on June 19, 2018, committing to a first season of eight episodes right out of the gate rather than a pilot order. That's a pretty rare vote of confidence for an adult animated show nobody outside comic circles had heard of yet.
Tomek Baginski, who directed the cinematic trailers for the video games, is the one who originally pitched The Witcher to Netflix, and he stayed on as an executive producer through the show's production. His own company is behind the series as well.
Twenty years before he played Bilbo on screen, Ian Holm voiced Frodo Baggins in the BBC's 1981 radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings. When the film came knocking, he ended up on the other side of the story entirely.
Keep an eye on Tony's wardrobe in a few scenes and you'll spot him wearing a Black Sabbath shirt. It's a cheeky little nod to the band's 1970 song 'Iron Man', which is basically the unofficial theme song for the character at this point even though the lyrics have nothing to do with Stark himself.
During 'A Night to Remember', a hagraven named Moira mutters 'my precious' while trying to hold onto a wedding ring the player needs, a direct callback to Gollum's obsession with the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings.
With basically the entire MCU cast standing together at Tony's funeral, you'd assume some digital trickery was involved to get everyone in one shot. Nope - every actor was physically there on the same day, and the crew just shot five or six takes of the whole group.
Nate's family ring isn't just sentimental jewellery, it's actually a key. The whole opening con is built around the fact that an old cipher disk only reveals its hidden message once Sir Francis Drake's ring is slotted into it, which is exactly why both Nate and Marlowe are so desperate to get their hands on it.
