Trivia / Jane the Virgin

• Acclaimed Flop: Critics loved the show, and Gina Rodriguez and the show won Golden Globe Awards, but it's one of the lowest-rated shows on the CW. But much like fellow low-rating critical darling Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, it managed to last just as long as the crew intended to tell their story.
• Acting for Two:
  • Elisabeth Röhm as Eileen and Rose disguised as Eileen.
  • Gina Rodriguez as Jane and the episodic imaginary iterations of Jane. Rodriguez also plays as Jane's great-aunt Cecilia, which doubles as Uncanny Family Resemblance.
  • Yael Grobglas as Petra and her twin sister Anezka.
  • Elias Janssen as Mateo and as a young version of his father, Rafael.
• Actor-Shared Background: Rogelio's actor, Jaime Camil, is a well-known Telenovela actor.
• Cast the Expert: Professional celebrity dancer Derek Hough guests in episode 40 for a salsa scene with Jane's character.
• Cast as a Mask: Megan Ketch as Susanna Barnett (Michael's partner/murderer) is Rose in disguise all along.
• The Cast Showoff: The show gets good mileage out of Gina Rodriguez's rapping skills and Andrea Novedo's singing voice.
• Channel Hop: In Britain after the series didn't catch on the way Ugly Betty did. E4 dropped it after the first two seasons, with Netflix taking up the slack from season three... and before season four began on The CW.
• Creator Cameo: Jennie Snyder Urman appears in the Grand Finale as the woman who hands Jane water at the marathon.
• Defictionalization: Jane's novel was actually published at the same time as on the show, complete with blurbs from several fictitious writers mentioned on the show and Rogelio (which is of course wildly hyperbolic).
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • Gina Rodriguez (Jane) directed Chapters Seventy-Four, Eighty-Two, and Ninety.
  • Justin Baldoni (Rafael) directed Chapter Seventy-Eight.
• Dueling Shows: With Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. In their lifespans they were the only Comedy-Drama shows with female leads on The CW and they both won Golden Globe awards when they were each on their first seasons. They also both finished their runs in the same season.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Alba, a Venezuelan, is played by Ivonne Coll who is a former Miss Puerto Rico. Gina Rodriguez and Andrea Navedo both have Puerto Rican parents.
  • Petra is Czech and is played by Yael Grobglas who is Israeli and descended from French and Austrian parents. Likewise, her mother is played by an American. All of this also applies to Anezka.
  • Emilio Solano is implied to be Hispanic and American, but is played by Carlo Rota who is an English-born Italian-Canadian actor.
  • Michael is American, but is played by Canadian actor Brett Dier.
  • Catalina speaks with an English accent due to her family (of Venezuelan descent) having settled in the UK; she's played by Morocco-born Sofia Pernas (brought up in the US).
  • Adam's Latina Lover Narrator (actually billed thus in the credits) is played by American Vanessa Marshall.
• Irony as She Is Cast: According to his appearance on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Jaime Camil indulges in extreme sports like dirt biking and skydiving. Rogelio is secretly afraid of heights.
• Playing Their Own Twin:
  • Alano Miller as both Zazo twins.
  • Yael Grobglas as Petra and her twin sister Anekza.
• Promoted to Opening Titles: Anthony Mendez in season 3.
• Reality Subtext: River Fields clashes with Rogelio over postpartum depression, which her actress Brooke Shields publicly struggled with.
• Star-Making Role: After a well-received stint on Law & Order, this was the show that made Gina Rodriguez a household name and one of the most in-demand actresses of The New '10s.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Michael was going to be killed at the end of Season 2 until the whole crew fell in love with Brett Dier's performance. But they still decided it was best for their long term plans, and put in a line from the narrator early on about how he would love Jane "until his last breath" specifically so they'd still have to do it at some point. It ultimately took them until halfway through Season 3 to work up the guts, resulting in the oddity of "Part 2" lasting a season and a half after Season 1 by itself was "Part 1."
  • Nadine's death was going to be revealed as a fakeout, which is why it's presented so vaguely. But their inability to get the actress back resulted in it apparently just being real.
  • Alba was going to speak English, which Ivonne Coll is fluent in, and there's even a version of the initial trailer with it. Then they decided her only speaking Spanish would be a great cultural touch and true to life for many such families.
  • An anthology Spin-Off titled Jane the Novela was planned, with Jennie Snyder Urman returning as showrunner and Gina Rodriguez serving as The Narrator. The idea was that each season would be an adaptation of an In-Universe novela Jane had penned with many a Call-Back to the original series, but it was not picked up by The CW after the pilot.

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