History Trivia / AlexRider

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There were plans for a series of film adaptations, with potential that it'd become the next ''Film/HarryPotter''. All that went out the window entirely after the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Stormbreaker}}'' flopped commercially and at best received lukewarm reception, plus Horowitz admitting that the series doesn't translate well to the big screen.

** At the beginning of the series, Alex is provided with a Gameboy by Smithers full of secret gadgets, and at the end of ''Crocodile Tears'' he's talking to Jack about ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed''.

** It's worth mentioning as well that at the beginning of the series, Alex is provided with a Gameboy by Smithers full of secret gadgets... and at the end of Crocodile Tears he's talking to Jack about 'Assassin's Creed'

* CastingGag: Damian Cray is played by Creator/TobyStephens, making him an ex-Bond Villain playing an expy of a Bond Villain.

* TeasingCreator: Creator/AnthonyHorowitz has indulged in this on creation; he teased two plot points from ''Scorpia Rising'', namely that one of the villains in a previous book didn't really die and that Smithers had a big secret, before ''Crocodile Tears'' was even written.

* CastingGag: Damian Cray is played by TobyStephens, making him an ex-Bond Villain playing an expy of a Bond Villain.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** In ''Skeleton Key'' (2002), the BigBad is an embittered former Soviet colonel who wants to return UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia to its former glory by orchestrating a ''[[TheCoup coup d'état]]'' against the Russian government. In hindsight, the book was pretty clearly written early in UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's reign, before his reputation as a global powerhouse really became established. The President of Russia is a blatant NoCelebritiesWereHarmed parody of UsefulNotes/BorisYeltsin, and Russia itself is portrayed as a chaotic post-Soviet Republic that just wants to embrace democracy and move past its old rivalries with the West. That portrayal became pretty outdated by the end of the decade, after Putin's aggressive policies actually ''did'' return Russia to superpower status, his increasingly authoritarian leadership caused most Western pop culture to portray Russia's government as a dictatorship, and the country's antagonism with the West [[HistoryRepeats went back to square one]] after Putin was accused of (among other things) conspiring to influence the 2016 United States Presidential Election.
** In a more minor example, in the fourth book, ''Eagle Strike'', the only thing that gives Alex reason to suspect that the BigBad is international celebrity Damian Cray is that he finds Cray's personal phone number on a hired assassin's unsecured mobile phone. Indeed, due to the ComicBookTime nature of the series' timeline, in ''Scorpia Rising'' (published 8 years later in 2011, but set less than a year after ''Eagle Strike''), a smartphone that can't be unlocked because it needs a passcode is a minor plot point.
** In ''Point Blanc'', one of the characters is called Fiona Friend - a PunnyName referencing one of the {{Lifelines}} in ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire''. When the book was released in 2001, ''Millionaire'' was a ratings juggernaut which ITV's schedules were frequently built around, and it was so well-known it was unlikely a reader wouldn't get the joke. By the time the ''Alex Rider'' books were coming to the end of their original run in 2011, ''Millionaire'' was limping to the end of its original run and was well out of the public eye.

* Alex is named after a Bond girl - he gets his surname from Honeychile Rider from ''Dr. No''. Other names Horowitz considered were Jack Banning, Tom Summers, Zac Marshall, Scott Winters, Dylan Beckett, Miles Longman, Sean Reeves, Jake Keaton, Adam Whitehead, Kai Bexter, Marcus Edwards, Liam Skye, Connor West, Kyle Fisher, Bradley Roberts, Callum Gates, Rupert Halliwell and Ben Shires.

* BreakthroughHit: Although Anthony Horowitz had been writing for children since ''1979'', and had been a fairly prolific television writer since the mid-eighties, Alex Rider is unquestionably his best-selling series. This is lampshaded and parodied in ''Literature/TheDanielHawthorneNovels'', where Horowitz himself plays TheWatson and people are constantly asking him about the Alex Rider books.

* BreakthroughHit: Although Anthony Horowitz had been writing for children since ''1979'', and had been a fairly prolific television writer since the mid-eighties, Alex Rider is unquestionably his best-selling series. This is lampshaded and parodied in ''Literature/DanielHawthorneMysteries'', where Horowitz himself plays TheWatson and people are constantly asking him about the Alex Rider books.

* BreakthroughHit: Although Anthony Horowitz had been writing for children since ''1979'', and had been a fairly prolific television writer since the mid-eighties, Alex Rider is unquestionably his best-selling series. This is lampshaded in ''Literature/TheDanielHawthorneMysteries'', where Horowitz himself plays TheWatson and people are constantly asking him about the Alex Rider books.

* BreakthroughHit: Although Anthony Horowitz had been writing for children since ''1979'', and had been a fairly prolific television writer since the mid-eighties, Alex Rider is unquestionably his best-selling series.

* HilariousInHindsight is caused when you see Alex, played by Alex Pettyfer, stood behind a giant label '4' in Cornwall. [[Literature/IAmNumberFour He is Number Four]].

* The infamous DownerEnding of ''Scorpia'', when Alex gets shot by a sniper, was a last-minute addition when Horowitz realised it would not make sense if Scorpia did not try to take their revenge on Alex.