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Revelations almost didn't exist in the form we got. Ubisoft had announced a Nintendo 3DS exclusive called Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy back at E3 2010, which would've had Ezio travelling to Masyaf to dig into the Holy Land. It got quietly canned a few months later, but the story wasn't wasted, lead writer Darby McDevitt basically took that same premise and folded it straight into Revelations.
When Steve mutters "Hail Hydra" to get the scepter off Sitwell, it's not just a throwaway gag - it's a direct nod to the Secret Empire comic run, where the real Steve Rogers turns out to be a sleeper agent for Hydra and uses that exact phrase to prove his loyalty.
James C. Burns had voiced Frank Woods for over a decade, going all the way back to the original Black Ops, but Activision never reached out to him about reprising the role for Cold War. Burns later said publicly he wished he'd gotten the chance, since nobody else had the years of backstory with the character that he'd built up.
Before Maya Hawke made Robin Buckley iconic, Bridgerton's Nicola Coughlan actually auditioned for the part and came close to landing it. She's since said publicly that Hawke absolutely nailed it in a way she doesn't think she could have, which is a pretty gracious thing to admit about a role you nearly got.
The crossover love between these Jump heavyweights didn't stop at print. In 2013, Fuji TV aired 'Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special,' putting Luffy, Goku and Toriko together on screen in a way that felt like a genuine event for fans who'd grown up with all three.
Steve introduces a chocolate bar called Peanut Butter Boppers in the final season, and it's not a made-up prop. It's a genuine 1980s treat, and the props team went as far as consulting the original manufacturer to recreate the packaging accurately. The timing worked out nicely too, since the company ended up rereleasing the actual bar not long after the show came out.
The bookstore where Joe works isn't a set built from scratch, it's Logos Bookstore on Manhattan's Upper East Side, used for both the exterior and interior shots. Fans do occasionally stop by hoping for a peek at the infamous glass cage in the basement, but that part, thankfully, was never real.
That gut-punch opening with Hawkeye's family turning to dust was actually written for Infinity War. It got pulled because the editors felt that film was already jumping between too many characters, so it got saved and used to kick off Endgame instead.
By the time Red Dead Redemption 2 opens, John Marston has already spent fifteen years riding with Dutch's gang, having only recently come back after running off for a year. It's a detail that quietly reshapes how you read his whole arc once you know just how long he'd been in this life before the story even starts.
