Trivia / Free Guy

• Actor Allusion:
  • Millie's Free City username of "MolotovGirl" nods to Jodie Comer's role as a Russian assassin in Killing Eve.
  • Matty Cardarople's character is listed in the credits as "Keith", the same name as the character he played in Stranger Things.
• Acting for Two: Ryan Reynolds portrays both Guy and the heavily muscle-bound "anti-Guy" NPC Dude.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Ryan Reynolds says that the concept for this film was the first to excite him as much as Deadpool's did, and he absolutely had to make sure he'd star in it.
• Blooper: During Millie and Guy's siege of the safehouse where the evidence against Antwan is stashed, there's a moment where Millie boards a motorcycle and asks Guy if he has a Glock in his pocket. In the shot where Millie's back is to the camera, her gloves vanish into thin air.
• California Doubling: The movie was filmed in Boston, which doubles as both Free City (the game world) and Seattle (the real-world setting). However, the movie opens with a player character skydiving into Free City, and from above it is VERY clearly Pittsburgh with the riverfront stadiums photoshopped out.
• The Cast Showoff: Channing Tatum gets to flex his dance moves during his cameo. This is Magic Mike we're talking about.
• Channel Hop: The film began development at Fox, but finished at Disney after the Disney-Fox acquisition. The first trailer credits it to Disney, while the second (as well as the final film) is under the 20th Century Studios name.
• Dueling Movies: With Belle, another film that came out around the same time revolving around a virtual world with the protagonist choosing to spread kindness even in the Wretched Hive that is the Internet. Free Guy was a bigger financial success due to being a major Hollywood studio release, while Belle was an international film given a limited arthouse release by an indie film distributor. Meanwhile, Belle was more well-received by both critics and audiences.
• Fake American:
  • The British Jodie Comer plays the American Millie. Although Comer uses an English accent for Millie's MolotovGirl persona, it is not her natural Liverpudlian accent.
  • The Australian Hugh Jackman uses an American accent for his cameo as the masked player Millie gets the location of the "secret level" clip from.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • MolotovGirl is programmed with a British accent (which Guy at one point mistakes for Australian), while her real-world player, Millie, is actually American. Her actress, Jodie Comer, really is British.
  • The first person to comment on MolotovGirl's fake accent is voiced by Hugh Jackman, who is also putting on a fake accent for his cameo here.
  • In an interview, both Reynolds and Comer fess up to not playing video games.
    Ryan Reynolds: Does Words With Friends count?
• Meaningful Release Date: If coincidentally — the film was released the same day as the final episode of Alex Trebek’s last season of Jeopardy!, though Trebek’s final episodes had aired some months earlier, and features a cameo from Trebek.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • Elements of the car chase that appeared in trailers were cut from the film, including Guy telling Millie he's never driven a car before and two players being hit by a truck while rooting for Guy.
  • In the first trailer, there's a clip of Antwan lounging in the chair at his desk while rapping, which is not in the movie proper.
• Playing Against Type: Ryan Reynolds, best known for playing cynical Deadpan Snarkers like Deadpool and Detective Pikachu, plays the idealistic and naive Guy.
• Posthumous Credit: Alex Trebek cameos as himself for an in-universe episode of Jeopardy; while the film was originally scheduled to release in July 2020, it was delayed over a year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and in the interval Trebek died from cancer in November 2020.
• Reality Subtext: A major plot point revolves around Antwan refusing to delay Free City 2, not caring that many blatant flaws and bugs have yet to be fixed only two days before the planned release date. This ultimately causes its sales to plummet and makes Antwan a laughingstock upon its release. The film’s numerous delays as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic caused it to be released after Cyberpunk 2077, a heavily hyped game with a similar premise to the film’s Free City, which was also Christmas Rushed despite the developers’ insistence that the game wouldn’t be ready for its planned deadline, resulting in an infamously buggy and unfinished launch in December 2020.
  • Even more Reality Subtext comes into play, as Shawn Levy stated that he based Antwan loosely on a studio executive he pitched the film to. He asked Levy if the film would be based on a book, but he couldn't grasp that the film would not based on any pre-existing work and that it was an original piece. Antwan's "Kentucky Fried Chicken, Part 2"/"Why do an original when I can do a sequel?" speech to Keys was inspired by this executive.
• Release Date Change: One of many films with a significant move as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, this move was from July 3, 2020 to December 11. Ryan Reynolds released an unfinished clip from the film and had a fingers crossed emoji placed next to the new date. The film was then delayed to May 21, 2021, then again to August 13, which was its final release date. The film is part of the last batch of Fox-greenlit projects that Disney was contractually obligated to release in theaters, and hence it couldn't be dumped on streaming services.^note Ironically, months later the film would be released on both the Disney+ and HBO Max streaming services on the same day, as part of a deal between Disney and WarnerMedia to partially share rights to 20th Century Studios' theatrical output through 2022.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Was released in August 2021, but has a copyright notice of 2020, implying the film was completed around early 2020.
• Role Reprise: For special promotional video for the film, Reynolds and Waititi reprised their roles as Deadpool and Korg from the Deadpool films and Thor: Ragnarok respectively, marking the first time that Reynolds' Deadpool has interacted with a Marvel Cinematic Universe character.
• Sleeper Hit: Unexpectedly, the film managed to open slightly better than the more heavily-publicized The Suicide Squad with $28 million (and much above COVID-19 pandemic expectations), then made $18.9 million in its second weekend. The drop of just 34% marked the smallest second-weekend decline of any wide release of the summer of 2021, and the second-best of Reynolds' career. Disney even greenlit a sequel.
• Throw It In!:
  • Due to the Disney-Fox merger that was occurring while this film was in development, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy put together a list of Marvel and Star Wars references they wished to use, expecting they'd get permission to use one, if that. Instead, they got permission to use whatever they wanted, resulting in the rapid-fire gags during Guy and Dude's fight.
  • Chris Evans' cameo was possible because Defending Jacob was in production in Boston at the same time as Free Guy. Shawn Levy reached out, and Evans agreed to come over and shoot the gag, which was completed in ten minutes.

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