History Trivia / Chernobyl

** Jared Harris was 56 when he portrayed Valery Legasov, who was 49 when the Chernobyl disaster happened and 51 when he died.
** 25-year old Leonid Toptunov is often49 teased by his co-workers for his young age and appearance. His actor, Robert Emms, was 32 at the time of filming.

** 25-year old Leonid Toptunov is often teased by his co-workers for his young age and appearance. His actor, Robert Emms, was 32 at the time of filming.
** Vasily Ignatenko was also 25 when the Chernobyl diaster happened. His actor, Adam Nagaitis, was also 32 at the time of filming.

* UnderageCasting: David Dencik was only 43 when he played Mikhail Gorbachev, who was 55 during the Chernobyl diaster.

** In the beginning, actors were going to speak English with a [[JustAStupidAccent vague Eastern]] [[VampireVords European accent]], but this was changed when the creators realized that they got too distracted acting their accents to act their characters properly, and the result sounded [[{{Narm}} inappropriately comical]] - hence Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian characters [[TheQueensLatin speaking with British accents]].

** He was also Ted Cruz's college roommate, and continues to hate him to this day.

* BannedInChina: Rather predictably, the series was criticized in Russia for being anti-Russian propaganda, and the Communists of Russia[[note]]Confusingly enough, this is a separate political party from the better-known Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which succeeded of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[[/note]] launched a lawsuit against the creators. Though it’s still reportedly very popular among the country’s citizenry.

* CaliforniaDoubling: The series is mainly shot at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}}, a decommissioned RBMK plant very similar to the one in Chernobyl[[note]]In fact, an incident at Ignalina in 1983 led to the specific RBMK design flaw which led to the Chernobyl disaster -- power surges caused by the graphite tips on the control rods -- being discovered (and covered up) by the Soviets for the first time.[[/note]]. Many of the Lithuanian crewmembers were old enough to remember life in the Soviet era and helped make sure that they got the little details right.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Dyatlov never says the oft-quoted "He's delusional, take him to the infirmary"; rather, it's, "Take him to the infirmary," before clarifying a few seconds later to Akimov that, "He's delusional."

* CreatorsOddball: Craig Mazin had previously written comedies such as ''Film/ScaryMovie3'', ''Film/SuperheroMovie'', ''Film/IdentityThief'' and the two sequels to ''Film/TheHangover''.

* ApprovalOfGod: Many survivors of Chernobyl approved the series's portrayal of the disaster, including [[https://youtu.be/6p9LR3gxBm0?t=155 General Nikolai Tarakanov]], who commanded the liquidators on the roof, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo2X-zRmiEU some of the surviving Russian miners]] from the digging operation beneath Reactor #4. The primary people who didn't like it were ([[LifeImitatesArt naturally]]) the Russian government.

* BannedInChina: Rather predictably, the series was criticized in Russia for being anti-Russian propaganda, and the Communists of Russia[[note]]Confusingly enough, this is a separate political party from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which succeeded of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[[/note]] launched a lawsuit against the creators. Though it’s still reportedly very popular among the country’s citizenry.

** As a result of the series' broadcast the n 2019, with the inevitable upsurge in interest in matters related to the the disaster, Lyudmila found herself bombarded with journalists' requests for interviews. The invasion of her privacy became so bad that she was forced to leave Kiev and live with her mother in the countryside.

* CaliforniaDoubling: The series is mainly shot at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania, a decommissioned RBMK plant very similar to the one in Chernobyl[[note]]In fact, an incident at Ignalina in 1983 led to the specific RBMK design flaw which led to the Chernobyl disaster -- power surges caused by the graphite tips on the control rods -- being discovered (and covered up) by the Soviets for the first time.[[/note]]. Many of the Lithuanian crewmembers were old enough to remember life in the Soviet era and helped make sure that they got the little details right.

* ColbertBump: Tourist demands to visit Pripyat and the safe parts of Chernobyl increased by 30% in the months that followed the broadcasting of the series.

** One month after the series concluded, a massive fire took place in a power plant of Moscow. And two months later, it was announced that a radiation leak detected over Europe in 2017 had been identified as originating from Mayak (where a nuclear incident larger and deadlier than Chernobyl took place in 1957, but the Soviet Union managed to keep secret for a long time). The state-owned corporation Rosatom denied the findings...

* LifeImitatesArt: The popularity of the series (including among Russian citizens) led to it being harshly criticized by the Russian government, who, in a very [[NeverMyFault Dyatlovesque move]], insisted that the ([[ShownTheirWork scrupulously researched]] and praised for its accuracy even by [[ApprovalOfGod actual Chernobyl survivors]]) series was a work of "Western propaganda" and immediately set about commissioning their own Chernobyl series showing the "truth" that the reactor was actually [[BlatantLies sabotaged by]] [[NeverMyFault the CIA]]. Which basically just goes to [[NotHelpingYourCase prove Mazin's point.]]

* ApprovalOfGod: Many survivors of Chernobyl approved the series's portrayal of the disaster, including [[https://youtu.be/6p9LR3gxBm0?t=155 General Nikolai Tarakanov]], who commanded the liquidators on the roof, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo2X-zRmiEU some of the surviving Russian miners]] from the digging operation beneath Reactor #4.

** The moment in the trial where the microphone is too far away from Legasov and a soldier rushes to place it correctly was not scripted. The microphone was genuinely misplaced, and director Johan Renck thought on the spot to sent one of the actors playing soldiers to fix it without stopping recording.

* ApprovalOfGod: Many survivors of Chernobyl approved the series's portrayal of the disaster, including General Nikolai Tarakanov, who commanded the liquidators on the roof, and some of the surviving Russian miners from the digging operation beneath Reactor #4.