Trivia / 22 Jump Street

• Casting Gag: During the credits, Seth Rogen briefly replaces Jonah Hill in one of the mock sequels because of a contract dispute.
• The Danza: Keith and Kenny Lucas as Keith and Kenny Yang.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Mercedes is played by the 30-year old Jillian Bell... who is 4 months younger than Jonah Hill, whose character she is constantly demeaning as old.
  • Amber Stevens (Maya) and Wyatt Russell (Zook), who were both 27-28 at the time of the film's release.
  • Averted notably by Jimmy Tatro (Rooster), the youngest of the college characters at 22.
• Defictionalization: During the film, Zook is required to film a scout reel and ropes Jenko (under his Brad McQuaid identity) in to make it a scout reel for the two of them. Whilst only a brief glimpse is seen of the video in the film, they actually made the entire video and put it on YouTube.
• Development Hell: The planned MIB 23 sequel/crossover film fell into this (probably as an aftereffect of the Sony hack that released info about it to start); the project has been cancelled, while Sony's instead making Men in Black: International.
• Dueling Movies:
  • Of a strange variety with How to Train Your Dragon 2, which opened on the same day as Jump Street. Although the two movies target very different audiences (barring the Periphery Demographic), Jonah Hill played a part in both films. As a result, while on the marketing campaign for Jump Street, Hill would find himself urging people to defy this trope and see both films, suggesting that people see Jump Street on opening Friday and Dragon with family on Sunday.
  • Industry projections expected both films to do well since their target audiences were much different, but Jump Street was the clear winner, grossing 72% more domestically than the first one, while Dragons 2 surprisingly grossed 19% less despite the popularity of the original and no animated competition.
• Reality Subtext: For all the Leaning on the Fourth Wall, this was ironically subverted with jokes about Jump Street's budget increasing. The film's budget was $50 million, only $8 million more than its predecessor, and still fairly modest.
• Shoot the Money: Discussed; the operation has a bigger budget (even if the movie itself is only $8 million more expensive than the original) and thus allows for more gadgets and such. Then comes a car chase where the protagonists feel the pursuers are deliberately crashing into expensive stuff... including an ATM.
• Throw It In!: Seth Rogen's cameo in the credits, serving as The Other Darrin to Jonah Hill for 29 Jump Street: Sunday School, wasn't originally part of the script - he just happened to be on the Sony lot that day and they asked if he wanted to do the cameo.
• Torch the Franchise and Run: The ending is a clear attempt to do so, by ruthlessly mocking the idea of Jump Street becoming a Cash-Cow Franchise by depicting Schmidt and Jenko in a series of increasingly absurd sequels.
• What Could Have Been: The film originally ended with Schmidt and Jenko quitting Jump Street, but test audiences didn't like the ending because it was a depressing way to end the franchise, as they wanted to believe that Schmidt and Jenko would continue to work in the Jump Street program. Instead, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller shot another ending that places Schmidt and Jenko in increasingly absurd assignments, ending the series on a more positive note.
  • See the aforementioned 'MIB 23'' plans above.