Approval of God: Hideki Kamiya, director of the original, ended up enjoying the remake, despite some hesitation to play it (he normally hates playing horror games because he finds them too scary).
Claire gets a costume based on her Elza Walker incarnation.
William Birkin used to moan "Sherry" among his other standard noises. This makes a comeback here.
The Licker's special kill, where they pin the player to the floor, was originally in 1.5, but cut in favor of a jumping slash to the throat. It was reintroduced with the Licker Betas in 5, and they can do it in 2 now.
Mr. X's hat is from a cut design planned for RE 1.5.
The Plant 43 section with its Ivy Zombies is an homage to the first draft concept for a sequel to the original Resident Evil, which would have seen S.T.A.R.S. returning to the ruined Arklay Mansion to deal with an infestation of mutated plants that were overrunning the ruins and producing new infected — and plant-parasitized — monsters. This idea was ultimately scrapped in favor of the "Raccoon City is overrun by zombies" story that created first Resident Evil 1.5 and then Resident Evil 2 proper.
The remake does indeed feature the zapping system in a way,note Decisions made by one character no longer affect the other, but the scenario system is still there despite developer interviews claiming that each character will get their own unique campaign.
The developers went into great length about why they chose to give Ada a trenchcoat instead of her iconic red dress. It didn't even take until near release like the above entry for the developers to contradict their claim with a trailer featuring Ada in, you guess it, her red dress.
Meaningful Release Date: It came out on January 25, 2019, four days after the original game's 21st anniversary.
The Other Darrin: Due to the localization company that Capcom went with for the remake deciding to use non-union voice actors, none of the current voice actors for Leon, Claire, and Ada make a return.
Promoted Fanboy: Much like his previous voice actor, Leon's current one, Nick Apostolides, is apparently a massiveResident Evil fan, having been playing the games since he was a little kid, and him getting the role of Leon was a dream come true for him.
Role Reprise: Despite the remake going for a primarily non-union cast, TJ Rotolo and Keith Silverstein reprise their respective roles as William Birkin and HUNK. Katsutoshi Karamatsu, one of the original game's programmers, also reprises his role as Tofu.
Underage Casting: In a sense with 19-year-old Claire Redfield. While her voice actress is far older than she is, Claire's facial model Jordan McEwen was only 15 years old when she did the facial capture to lend her likeness to the character.
Vaporware: The remake was announced in 2015, and nothing was heard of it again until the first trailer was revealed at E3 2018.
Wag the Director: Stephanie Panisello has admitted she had a key role in infamous (and controversial) changes to Claire's character. She suggested Claire's use of profanity because of the high-pressured situations,note Despite the fan divide over this, ironically, Alyson Court had also wanted Claire to swear. and also suggested a practical update to Claire's outfit, being from a family of motorcyclists.
One of the unlockable pieces of concept art in the game shows a zombie variant that's partially transformed into a Licker, reminiscent of the Regis Licker from Resident Evil: Outbreak.
As detailed on the Nightmare Fuel page, concept art indicates that this game was originally going to feature Crimson Heads.
Another one of the unlockable piece of concept art show that originally, Claire would encounter the giant zombie alligator at some point in her campaign. Another involving the gator was the chase would have been much more engaging.
The devs apparently toyed with the idea of mixing in the first and third person views, with the game in 3rd-person during the exploration, before switching to 1st-person when aiming.
A strange case: there was a fan-made RE2 remake, made in Unreal Engine 4. Capcom politely asked the developers to shut it down, as the official remake was well into development. The developers accepted, and were taken to see the then-in-progress official remake, as well as discuss ideas with Capcom's team. Not wanting to let their work go to waste, they retooled their project into Daymare 1998.
Misc. Trivia:
Upon hearing of Paul Haddad's death on April 15, 2020, Nick Apostolides shared an emotional video recording where he expressed how much his predecessor meant to him, both as a fan and as a personal friend. An ode from one Leon to another.
the meme associating Mr. X with DMX.