Trivia / Steven Universe: Alternate Future

• All-Star Cast:
  • The amount of guest stars the story has is quite notable, ranging from musicians like Hayley Kiyoko, Billie Eilish & Lin-Manuel Miranda, actors like Noël Wells, Lauren Ash, Pierce Brosnan & Hugh Jackman, and those are only the ones credited on the episode list.
  • As confirmed in this post on the author's DeviantArt, future stories are set to feature the likes of Avi Roque, Awkwafina, Allison Janney, Zehra Fazal, Lena Hall, Voltaire, Shirley Millner, Jason Marsden, Cissy Jones, Henry Rollins and Keith David.
• Approval of God: Lightyearpig has given his blessing to Tumblr user Brydav-Massbear to create a webcomic version of Alternate Future that gives it a few changes, since he's shown approval of said user's detailed reviews on each chapter.
• Ascended Fanon: TheCurryAstute's OC Velhallen Beo is mentioned during one of the flashbacks in "Made Me Realize" after appearing in two duets with Black Rutile by his creator.
• In Memoriam: "Pumpkin Patch" is dedicated to Thea White, the voice of Muriel Bagge from Courage the Cowardly Dog. The chapter also includes an Expy of her husband Eustace who scares Peridot away from his farm with a scary mask.
  • The first part of "From Russia With Hate" includes one to Robbie Coltrane, who played Valentin Zukovsky in Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough.
  • The sixth chapter of Snake Eyes ends with a dedication to David McCallum, the voice of the Q Expy G in Alternate Future and Little Homeworld Life. The dedication also includes a quote from his most famous animated role as Professor Paradox.
  "So many different ways to tell a story, but that's what makes them so interesting. You can never predict how they're going to turn out."
• Inspiration for the Work: The author's notes for "Love Like You" confirms that Alternate Future was inspired by Final Fantasy VII Remake and Zack Snyder's Justice League, both of which also overhauled the source material to tell a new story.
  • Meanwhile, The Black Pearl Brigade is stated to be inspired by Black Widow, Cowboy Bebop, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
  • Community, 30 Rock, The Middle, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Arrested Development, The Good Place, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Office (US) are credited for inspiring Little Homeworld Life.
  • The sole inspiration for The Trial of Black Rutile comes from "The Trial of Megatron", a script reading for what would've been the fourth season premiere of Transformers: Animated, as revealed in a director's commentary commemorating the story's second anniversary.
  • Two Sides of the Same Gem is said to be inspired by the likes of "Mirror Mirror" from Star Trek: The Original Series, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Transformers: Shattered Glass, Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
  • Word of God stated in a Tumblr ask that the idea of the Snake People came to him after watching Planet Hulk on Netflix, and they'll also take inspiration from Thor: Ragnarok and Ratchet: Deadlocked.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • The story began with the first chapter released on December 7th, 2020, the one year anniversary of Steven Universe Future.
  • The second half of "The Black Pearl Brigade" began in June 2022, which the author said was intentional since June is both Pride Month and the month that pearls are a birthstone of.
  • "Little Homeworld Life" began its first season on August 15th, the in-universe birthday of Steven.
  • Season 2 of "Little Homeworld Life" began on March 27th, 2023, three years since the conclusion of Future. It ended in June during Pride Month.
  • Snake Eyes concluded on November 2023, marking ten years since the premiere of Steven Universe in 2013.
• The Other Darrin: The author of the revamp has stated many of the characters from the original story will have different voice actors that he states would "fit better for them".
• The Other Marty: Flipso was imagined being voiced by David Tennant. But once Big Jack Horner began rising in popularity and frequently pitted against Steven in memes, the author had Tennant switched for Jack's voice actor John Mulaney.
• Reality Subtext: The final author's note at the end of "The Future" claims that writing the final chapter meant a lot to the author, since he was going to college soon by the time Future ended, which meant he had to leave home just like Steven, and the COVID-19 Pandemic was beginning.
• Series Hiatus:
  • In the author's note at the end of "Rejuvenated", Word of God confirmed that the story would go on hiatus once Part 1 ends so he can focus on college. The hiatus ended with Part 2's premiere on March 15th.
  • Similarly, the end of "The Warning" confirms there will be another hiatus once Part 2 ends. That hiatus began after "Enemy of my Enemy" was released on May 3rd and ended on July 5th with "Together Forever", the first chapter of Part 3.
  • Part 3 ended on August 23rd, but afterwards instead of announcing a two month hiatus, Part 4 was confirmed to be beginning September 13th. Part 4, and the story itself, would conclude on November 1st.
  • The Black Pearl Brigade went on hiatus after its eighth chapter was released on May 2nd, with the remainder of the story released between June 6th and July 25th.
  • The first season of Little Homeworld Life ran between August 15th and November 7th, 2022. Season 2 began about a month after Two Sides of the Same Gem concluded on March 27th, 2023 and ended on June 19.
  • After Little Homeworld Life concluded, Snake Eyes began on August 28th, 2023 and ended on November 13th.
• Throw It In!:
  • In the author's notes for "Bluebird", Lightyearpig states that Steg was a last-minute addition he made while writing the climax simply because he thought a fight between him and Bluebird Azurite would be cool.
  • The author's notes of "Made Me Realize" implies some ideas for this were inspired by fan suggestions.
• Word of Gay: According to this artwork made for Pride Month 2021, White Topaz identifies as pansexual because of how warm and friendly she is, while Black Rutile is aroace because "she has better things to do than find a lover like plotting, thinking of ways to harm the Crystal Gems & being a general sociopath."
• Word of God: On the one-year anniversary of the story's release, a "director's commentary" was released that explains a few things.
  • Jasper's character arc in Part 4 is supposed to be similar to John Rambo or Dinobot, as "An Old Soldier constantly beaten down by the terrors of life after your greatest battles, but remains steadfast in her Code of Honour regardless of it all." Jasper was even supposed to quote Rambo's famous breakdown from First Blood, but it never came to mind during the writing process.
  • Teal Zircon is connected to a Zircon-like Gem shown in a flashback during the original series's "Gemcation". However, her design would be changed to better fit with her corrupted form while this other gem would become a different individual. More specifically, a Rutile.
  • "Gems Night Out" was originally going to be an episode featuring Bismuth hanging out with some of the old Crystal Gems, presumably including Snowflake Obsidian, Larimar, Bixbite, among others.
  • Similar to the Rambo example, the author imagined Steven having his own breakdown in "Be-All, Cure-All" akin to Benjamin Sisko's in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Far Beyond the Stars". However, it never came to mind by the time the chapter was written.
  • An ask on the author's Tumblr states that Black Rutile is around a couple hundred or thousand years younger than Pink Diamond.
• Write Who You Know: The author is autistic and as such, he has included a few autistic characters in the series. While he implied that Black Rutile may identify as autistic, he's hesitant to outright confirm it out of fear that she'll be seen as bad representation given that she's the Big Bad.