!For the TV show
* ActorAllusion:
** While discussing whether Creator/RobertPattinson was the vampire or the werewolf in "Twilight," Rafe says "Don't look at me." {{Creator/Graham Greene|Actor}} played Harry Clearwater in the Twilight movies.
** And of course, [[Creator/JulieBenz Amanda]] would know that he was the vampire, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer having been]] [[Series/{{Angel}} one herself]].
** In "Broken Bough," Pilar (Creator/LindaHamilton) tells Nolan and Irisa, [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} "Come with me if you want to live."]]
* AdoredByTheNetwork: Reruns are extremely frequent, new episodes are heavily promoted, and the show was renewed for a second season after only FOUR episodes (out of twelve) were aired. It probably has to do with the fact that, next to ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', it's the only primetime show on the network that isn't a Canadian or BBC import (all except Series/{{Continuum}}, incidentally, having already finished).
* CaliforniaDoubling: Set in St. Louis, filmed in Toronto. Which explains the diner in a Toronto subway car.
* CreatorBacklash: Extremely mild case: Creator/JulieBenz often expresses in interviews how arrogant and unjustifiably overconfident she finds Amanda to be. It's more amusing to her than annoying.
-->"Of course Amanda thinks she can be the Lawkeeper; she thinks she can do ''anything''!"
* EnforcedMethodActing: In "The Bride Wore Black," Nolan doesn't tell Tommy he knows Datak didn't commit the murder they're arresting him for or that the plan is for him to lead them to whoever framed him, so Tommy will be more convincing.
* FakeAmerican: Australian Grant Bowler and Canadian Mia Kirshner play Americans, while Scottish Tony Curran, English Jamie Murray and English Stephanie Leonidas all play aliens with American accents.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: [=SyFy=] may have adored the show, but they moved it from the Thursday night, where it got good viewership numbers to the dreaded Friday Night slot, which resulted in a slight dip in the numbers in comparison to the first two seasons, thus allowing [=SyFy=] to cancel the show on the grounds of "financial reasons" (which happened to be the same reason that [=SyFy=] gave for cancelling Rockne S. O'Bannon's previous show, ''Farscape'' after doing the same thing for that show's fourth season).
* YouLookFamiliar: Rob Archer has played (so far) at least four [=BioMen=]; {{Justified|Trope}} by [=BioMen=] being genetically engineered.
** Averted with actress Jessica Nichols, who played various male and female Liberata characters in the show, including Jered Kikema (the Liberata bartender at the [=NeedWant=] in Season 1), Bertie (the [=McCawley=]'s house servant) and the live-action appearance of Varus Soleptor. This is more than likely due to the variations of makeup for each of the characters, as well as the voices for Jered and Varus being done by male voice over actors that made the actress unnoticeable.
** Trenna Keating (who plays series regular Doc Yewll) appears in a Season 3 episode outside of Doc Yewll as a human mother who is rescued by T’evgin from one of Rahm Takk's soldiers who have secretly entered the town.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was an alternate ending to Season 1 which would have had a seven month time jump (which is not so much different from some of the events seen in Season 2) that featured Irisa coming back to Defiance after disappearing from her jump to the Kaziri, which Amanda would inform her that Nolan was still alive. It would then cut to a prison cell that was filled with water, showing Datak Tarr taking a seat next to a beared and long haired man, revealing that it is Nolan. The final shot would have shown Las Vegas Prison, it appeared that the Las Vegas area has become an island and that the prison being built up around the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

!For the Video Game
* ChristmasRushed: When first announced, the developers of the game made a lot of pie-in-the-sky promises that unfortunately they were not able to implement because they were under a deadline to launch the game at the same exact moment the show began broadcasting. The developers were then fired and replaced with a different team of developers who were charged with fixing all the bugs and implementing all those unfinished features.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Gamigo; the parent company of developer Trion Worlds, demanded the team to focus on finishing the 2018's ''2050'' relaunch with a small crew of programmers, leaving the original version abandoned outside of minor patches and holiday events, clearly expecting most Defiance players to migrate to ''2050'' to close the original game's servers. However, many players never migrated to ''2050'' and kept continuing playing the original version, forcing them to continue the servers up while Trion Worlds had problems with the newer version due to the unavailability of the actors and their small workforce which caused them to never complete 2050, leaving entire storylines plus the region of Silicon Valley out of the new version.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: When developer Trion Worlds was bought out by ''Gamigo'' -- a German corporation known for buying MMO studios and for its utilitarian money-first business practices -- they proceeded to lay off half of the workforce to save money, increased the prices of in-game store items and demanded them to focus entirely on supporting ''Defiance 2050'' (a separate version with a new engine, enemies, class system and balance tweaks but with less content) which ended all major development on the original game with only a skeleton crew keeping it online with seasonal events and minor fixes. With both games co-existing and the original game left behind with many players never migrating to 2050 and eventually leaving the game due to a lack of new content and highly-awaited server fixes -- and those who did, found the new game incomplete and buggy which made ''2050'' unable to hold onto an dedicated audience -- caused the playerbases of both games to dwindle until finally ''Trion Worlds'' shut down the servers of both games in April 29, 2021, citing the low playerbases and profitability.
* TroubledProduction:
** The original version had a troubled development due to the notoriously buggy [=GameBryo=] engine, the fact that they had to coordinate with the TV show's production crew for designs and approvals caused them to lose precious development time and having rush the game to release alongside the show's premiere. All of this would lead to the developers being fired and replaced.
** The ''2050'' version was originally meant to be an "Enhanced & Expanded" edition of the game that would have included new storylines, enemies and mechanics. However, due to the shaky and outdated code of the original game, they had a to redo a lot of code just to make the game run passable on then-modern systems, which caused many bugs and glitches from the original game to migrate to the new version, not only that but many of their plans had to be cancelled due to their heavily reduced workforce and lack of budget, making 2050 a very stripped down version of the original game when it released and would continue to haunt the game until its closure in April 2021.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The ''2050'' version was going to include a new storyline set 4 years after the main campaign but it never materialized due to Trion Worlds' reduced workforce and lack of funding. (see ScrewedByTheNetwork above)
** Originally, the design of the Golden Gate Bridge in the game is different in the original concept art, showing that the bridge was still intact and not affected by the Pale Wars and terraforming event, similar to the Gateway Arch in the show. The bridge would have had some additional things added to it, such as walk ways that wrap around the towers' of the bridge that lead to their bases. The design, however, was used in the show, seen in the ending of Season 2's "Painted From Memory" (see YMMV for "Special Effects Failure" for show), and the original model can be found in the game's WAD files.
** An alternate version of EGO's introduction dialogue can be found in the game's sound WAD and would have had her say her name was "Devral" (or something similar to that) before saying, "You can just call me EGO."
** For D2013, originally there was a weather system developed where it would have included fog and rain throughout Paradise (and not limited to certain areas like the top of Mount Tam and San Francisco). This weather system was talked about in one of the introduction videos for both the show and the game, with the idea that the weather would affect the gameplay. The weather system, however, was cut from the game because it kept causing the game to crash. However, a version of the weather system was eventually used without any crashes in the D2050 version, but still doesn't affect the gameplay.
** There was a bit of flat land that was cut off from the rest of San Francisco due to in-game rock formations that would have served as the location of the Fort Defiance mentioned to have been the location of the Act of Defiance that brought an end to the Pale Wars near the entryway for the underground bunker leading to the boss fight with Nim Shandu. Several players who were able to join the game during its early months of release as they were able to find a way over the rock formations to get access to it (and unlocking a fast travel point to it). Trion Worlds later used invisible walls to block access to it (despite not being able to access the area, by getting up on a certain spot of the rock formation allowed for viewing of the area without being able to get to it). Essentially, the area would have housed Fort Defiance.
!For The Film:
* DeletedScene: Originally, the movie was to begin with Creator/DanielCraig in in old-age makeup in New York City with his son, but while director Creator/EdwardZwick shot the scene, he eventually deleted it because he felt it clashed with the nature of the film.
* UnderageCasting: The real Asael Bielskiwas in his 30's during the events of the film. Creator/JamieBell was in his 20's.
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