Trivia / The Blacklist

• California Doubling:
  • In "Frederick Barnes", the title criminal puts a briefcase full of a toxin on a train in the Washington Metro (which in the background you can hear them announcing Washington subway stations over the PA system ["Woodley Park", "Dupont Circle"]) which kills dozens of people. Only thing is, the trains and stations are not from Washington. They're clearly from Baltimore (the nearest city to Washington that also has a subway). The reason being is that WMATA has a policy that they will not permit filming of any program or movie that shows violence committed on a Metro train or in a station. Also, while train operators do announce their train and its destination on its internal speakers and the train's external loudspeakers when they arrive at a station, Metro does not announce train arrivals on a station's PA system, that's reserved for system-wide announcements like general train delays (when there is a big game or a major public gathering) or when there have been service disruptions due to train or track problems.
  • It happens again in a courtroom in the courthouse in Arlington, Virginia (which is about 6 miles from Washington). The building used is not the Arlington County Courthouse, as it's more like a federal courthouse in Los Angeles or New York. The Arlington County Courthouse is on a plaza across from the county jail; the courthouse shown in the episode was approached by a long staircase similar to the New York City one seen in Law & Order.
• Cast the Expert: The actor playing Red's chief of security Baz also happens to be a former CIA officer and veteran US Marine who founded an NGO which rescues kidnapped children in the sex slave trade.
  • Hisham Tawfiq, the actor who played Dembe was a U.S. Marine who served during Desert Storm and was a New York firefighter prior to becoming an actor.
• The Character Died with Him:
  • Brian Dennehy, who played Dominic Wilkinson, passed away due to sepsis in April 2020. After Brian's death, Ron Raines briefly took over the role of Dom in season 8 until Dom got killed off.
  • Glen, whose actor Clark Middleton passed away in October 2020, was confirmed to have died a few episodes into Season 8. He even died from the same cause: West Nile virus. Rest in peace, Jellybean.
• The Danza:
  • Alan Alda plays a character whose first name is "Alan".
  • Baz is played by Bazzel Baz.
  • Mozhan Marnó's birth name was Lailie Mozhan Navabi, and she played a character called Samar Navabi.
• Fake Russian: Most of the Russian characters on the show are played by non-Russian actors. The young Katarina Rostova in flashbacks is played by Lotte Verbeek, while the sexagenerian present-day Katarina is played by Laila Robins. Katarina's father, the man known as Dominic Wilkinson, was played by Brian Dennehy (and by C.J. Wilson in the flashback episode "Rassvet"). The young Ilya Koslov was played in "Rassvet" by Gabriel Mann, and his present-day version by Brett Cullen. The elderly restaurateur Anton Velov was played by Madison Arnold. All actors heretofore mentioned in this entry are American except Verbeek, who is Dutch. Milos "Berlin" Kirchoff is played by Swedish character actor Peter Stormare. Possibly the only aversion is the young version of Velov from "Rassvet" who was played by Stass Klassen, who is indeed Russian.
• Hollywood Homely: In Season 4, Aram - played by a very good looking Israeli-American actor - is perplexed as to why his hot new girlfriend is with him, and speculates with Samar as to for what messed-up reasons she might be with a stereotypical IT geek like him. When she reassures him that she might like him for his many good qualities that don't include his looks, he says that he's a 4 on looks, or at best, a 6 on a good day.
• Killed by Request: Megan Boone wanted to move on from the series after eight seasons and requested that her character be killed off to facilitate her exit.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Samar was Put on a Bus when Mozhan Marnó left, Liz was Killed Off for Real when Megan Boone left, and several characters were killed off or written out because their actors passed away (see The Character Died with Him above.)
  • Amir Arison is due to leave by Season 10 since he was casted to be in the theater version of The Kite Runner.
• What Could Have Been: Frank Grillo was one of the actors originally considered for the role of Reddington, but had to turn it down due to conflicts with Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
  • Dom was meant to be written out after Brian Dennehy passed away. But the production crew decided to cast Ron Raines to take over instead.
• Written-In Infirmity: Megan Boone announced she was expecting her first child around season 3; that season, Liz is heavily pregnant with Tom's baby.
• You Look Familiar: Lukas Hassel has a significant recurring role in season 8 as Elias Van Dyke, an important right-hand man to the season's overarching baddie Neville Townsend. He actually first appears in season 4 as a character names Vincent, an....important right-hand man to that particular episode's baddie. He goes down a lot easier the first time around.