Page 174 of 269
Scrawled on a wall near the stairs in Shi No Numa is the phrase 'Ascend from darkness' - which reads as a throwaway bit of set dressing until you realise it's actually the very first hint of Reznov's storyline that pays off two years later in Black Ops.
The script was nowhere near finished when cameras started rolling. Storyboards had to be drawn up without a completed screenplay, and the writers ended up on set writing scenes while filming was actually happening around them.
Shortly after Arcane wrapped, Riot released a League of Legends cinematic called 'Welcome to Noxus' following Mel Medarda heading home to her birth nation, which a lot of fans took as a not-so-subtle hint about where the next show in the franchise might be headed.
Beyond the famous Fuji TV special, One Piece's crossover history runs deeper through games too. Luffy and Goku have shared the screen in titles like the Jump Crossover series and Battle Stadium D.O.N, giving fans playable versions of a rivalry that started as a friendly one between their creators.
When an Orc dies during the Tournament of Ten Bloods, Boethia sighs 'Alas, poor Orc. This was not your finest hour.' It's a straightforward pun on Hamlet's graveyard speech, 'Alas, poor Yorick,' dropped in without any fanfare for anyone who happened to study the play in school.
Not every movement in the show is Chinese martial arts. The dancing in Season 3's 'The Headband' was actually based on capoeira, the Brazilian style that blends fighting with dance, giving that one scene a completely different rhythm from anything else in the series.
Invincible VS, a fighting game spun off from the show, was developed by Quarter Up and published through Skybound Games, releasing on April 30, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and arcades. Several of the animated series' actual voice cast came back to reprise their characters for it, including J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man.
When some of the original Blizzard North team left to found Flagship Studios, they clearly couldn't resist bringing a piece of Diablo with them. Their game Hellgate: London includes a quest reward called 'Wart's Peg Leg,' a not-so-subtle parody of Wirt's Leg.
Sharp-eyed fans spotted a subtle easter egg tucked into Kate Keller's very first scenes in the reboot's premiere that hinted she was more tied to Gossip Girl than she initially let on, well before the reveal played out.
Season 4 brought in Danai Gurira to voice the villain Universa, arriving almost exactly a year after fellow Walking Dead alum Jeffrey Dean Morgan had his own turn in the series. Kirkman clearly isn't shy about pulling from his old cast list when a role fits.
