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The role of Will Turner came down to a straight choice between Orlando Bloom and Heath Ledger. Bloom's stock had just shot up thanks to Lord of the Rings, and that timing is generally credited with tipping the casting in his favour.
Tom Hiddleston actually shot a full day of footage reprising Loki for one of Thor's vision sequences. Test audiences ended up finding the scene confusing, with some walking away thinking Loki had somehow been behind Ultron's creation the whole time, so the whole thing got cut way down and Loki's part in it vanished entirely.
There's a shot of Ivan Vanko hunched over his gear in a grim little garage that's framed almost identically to Tony building his very first suit in the cave back in the original film. It's a nice touch, both men cobbling together something brilliant out of scraps and desperation, just on opposite sides of the law.
In the heart of Blackrock Mountain stands a statue of Franclorn Forgewright, the dwarf who designed much of Blackrock Depths, holding an empty grip built to fit his hammer Ironfel. Slot the weapon in and it locks permanently into the monument, unlocking a hidden key compartment in the base, but the moment anyone tries to pry the hammer back out, both it and the statue shatter for good.
Once you've finished the game and unlocked some of the cosmetic outfits, one option for Ellie is a bright yellow tracksuit that's unmistakably lifted from Uma Thurman's Bride in Kill Bill. Given how far Ellie's come by the credits, it's a fitting look for her.
Every mainline Halo game since has included collectible Skulls scattered through its campaign levels, letting players toggle in modifiers that make runs harder or just plain stranger. That whole tradition, including fan favourites like the dialogue-altering IWHBYD Skull and the notoriously brutal Iron Skull, actually started right here in Halo 2.
During one of Scarecrow's fear-gas hallucinations, he appears posing as Batman's therapist and casually remarks that Bruce has 'been like this' ever since his parents died - a chillingly casual line delivery that plays on one of the character's most famous traumas, before it's clarified he doesn't actually know who's under the mask.
When Steven goes rifling through Marc's storage unit, he pulls out an American passport, and if you pause on it, Marc Spector's birthday is listed as March 9th — which just so happens to be Oscar Isaac's actual birthday in real life.
Eagle-eyed viewers on HBO Max spotted that Riddler's rundown apartment sits directly across from the Iceberg Lounge, the exact spot where most of his incriminating evidence photos would've been taken. Reeves personally confirmed the detail was intentional once fans clocked it.
