Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,199
edits
Merlin (TV series)/Trivia: Difference between revisions
removed redundant header
No edit summary |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (removed redundant header) |
||
| (19 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
* [[Ability Over Appearance]]: Given the time-period and the fact that Guinevere means "white" or "fair one", there were some raised eyebrows over mixed-race [[Angel Coulby]] getting the part of the future queen. The producers said that they had looked at hundreds of potential Guineveres, but [[Angel Coulby]] was the only one that could nail the quirky, clumsy servant girl, but also "bring the queen" when the occasion called for it.
* [[Acting for Two]]: [[Eve Myles]] in "The Dragon's Call" playing both Lady Helen and Mary Collins.
** Also, Colin Morgan has portrayed a total of ''three'' different characters including standard Merlin, Dragoon/Emrys, and Dolma. How he manages to pull off making all three different characters with different quirks is amazing.
* [[Awesome, Dear Boy]]: When the production team offered the role of the Great Dragon to [[John Hurt]], they didn't actually expect him to agree to be part of a small show with a cast of unknowns. His response to the offer, though, has been paraphrased as "hell, yeah, I want to be a dragon."
* [[Billing Displacement]]: Angel Coulby is credited before Bradley James in the opening credits; a little strange considering Arthur is the show's [[Deuteragonist]]. Speculation is that Angel went first because she was the most established cast member at the inception of the show, or that the names are simply in alphabetic order after Colin Morgan.
** In the episode "Another's Sorrow", James Fox is ranked before Janet Montgomery, even though Montgomery is in nearly every scene of the episode and Fox's role barely constitutes a cameo.
* [[Casting Gag]]: [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Giles the ex-black sorcerer outlaws sorcery entirely.]]
** Harry Melling (Gilli) is best known as playing a magic-fearing Muggle in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' films.
* [[Channel Hop]]: In the USA, the first season aired on NBC during the Summer of 2009. From the second series onwards, it was transferrred to the [[SyFy]] Channel where it faired much better than it did on Broadcast TV and it stayed there for the rest of it's run.
* [[Deleted Role]]: Emilia Fox as Morgause was all set to return after her death (at the start of
* [[Fake Brit]]: Morgana is played by Irish actress [[Katie McGrath]], and Merlin is played by Northern Irish actor Colin Morgan. Morgana, however, retains her Irish accent, possibly because Colin Morgan's natural [[Stroke Country|Armagh]] accent is much more distinctively regional to British ears than Katie McGrath's softer and unfamiliar [[In Dublin's Fair City|South Dublin]] lilt. Gwaine is also played by an Irish actor (Eoin Macken.)
** All three actors - Morgan, McGrath & Macken - were [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHtXD7XFeeI interviewed on Irish television together] so their real accents can be compared and contrasted.
* [[Fan Nickname]]: [[Ho Yay|Slash Dragon]] for the dragon and lately, "Smirkgana" for Morgana. King Giles for Uther.
* [[Fan Nickname]]: The Slash Dragon.
** Merlin and Gwen are often called the Camelot Detective Agency.
** Agravaine was already being called Uncle Creeper after his first two appearances. Once he hit [[The Scrappy|Scrappy]] status he became known as "Aggravating".
* [[Follow the Leader]]: The show is essentially [[Recycled Premise|repurposing the premise]] of ''[[Smallville]]'' for the Arthurian mythos. Both shows feature the untold adventures of a well-established hero and his supporting cast when they were teenagers, with a mix of [[Teen Drama]] and [[Monster of the Week]] elements, designed to appeal to the same [[Target Audience]] and [[Periphery Demographic]]. The similarities have been acknowledged by the cast & crew in interviews. To whit:
** The teenage hero is [[Power Creep, Power Seep|developing]] special powers hithertofore used only instinctively which he must master ''and'' hide for fear of discovery, surreptitiously saving people around him with them without them knowing. The hero is told of the great [[Because Destiny Says So|destiny]] that awaits him [[Screw Destiny|whether he likes it or not]], and has to deal with conflicting messages from his peers and mentor figures about how to use his powers. Many of the canonical character relationships are also inverted at the beginning of the show. Both works feauture an [[Adorkable|socially]] [[Hollywood Nerd|awkward]], [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|reluctant but chronic hero]] who comes from humble origins that are [[The Reveal|actually fantastical]] (Merlin/Clark); a friend-destined-to-be-[[Face Heel Turn|nemesis]] (Morgana/Lex Luthor); misdirected love interests (Gwen and Merlin/Chloe and Clark); lovers initially disinterested in their destined spouse (Arthur and Gwen/Clark and Lois); an [[Race Lift|ethnically-recast]] female lead (Gwen/Lana), a loving and sternly cautious [[Parental Substitute|father figure]] contrasting an ambiguously motivated supernatural mentor (Gaius and Jonathan Kent/The Dragon and Jor-El's recording); a [[Plucky Girl]] who won't keep her mouth shut (Morgana/Lois); a faithful female friend (Gwen/Chloe); future allies who initially dislike each other (Clark and Oliver/Merlin and Arthur); awkward friends from radically different social classes (Merlin and Arthur/Clark and Lex); the rich friend is heir to a vast empire but has misgivings about it (Arthur/Lex) and has an extremely powerful [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] father and is both a potential ally and an implicit threat to the hero if he were to discover his secret (Lionel Luthor/Uther Pendragon).
** Oddly enough, they got accused of doing this with Series 5 and ''[[Game of Thrones]]'', as it features snow, Gwen learning politics, and a more multi-stranded story line. The creators pointed out these tropes are hardly original to ''Game of Thrones'', although they do envy their production budget.
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]
** There are plenty of familiar faces among the cast, most obviously [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|King Giles]], but a huge amount of actors have also featured in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' before or since featuring in ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. To date:
Line 27 ⟶ 39:
*** According to [[Doctor Who|the Doctor]], Percival has to clean his internet history.
** Then there's:
** Alexander Siddig: Kanen,
** Uther [[Repo! The Genetic Opera|kills people for their organs]].
** The guy who played Alvar played Jesus in an adaptation of the Passion a few years ago...
Line 36 ⟶ 48:
** The man who became the host for Cornelius Sigan's spirit seems to have [[Pirates of the Caribbean|no problem with his wooden eye this time around]].
** [[Rome|Pompey]] moonlights as a Sidhe.
** Merlin's childhood friend in
** [[Harry Potter|Dudley]] is sure a skilled wizard, better warn Vernon!
** Mordred is [[The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas|Bruno]].
Line 49 ⟶ 61:
* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: [[John Hurt]] voicing a dragon. How cool is that?
** [[Harry Potter|Arthur Weasley]] was the voice of the goblin.
* [[Hide Your Pregnancy]]: Emilia Fox as of "Queen of Hearts". This is probably why Morgause was flung into a wall, buried under rocks, deformed, put in a cart, and stabbed to death!
* [[Missing Trailer Scene]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRiEJnU3lZY&feature=related In the official trailer for Series 3], there is a scene with Uther and Arthur embracing while wearing their crowns. It doesn't appear in any episode or deleted scene.
* [[The Other Darrin]]: {{spoiler|Mordred's been recast as [http://ontd-merlin.livejournal.com/378554.html 23 year old Alexander Vlahos]}}.
* [[Romance on the Set]]: Bradley James and Georgia King (Princess Elena) started dating after "The Changeling". Hilariously ironic given that their characters mutually agreed to call off their [[Arranged Marriage]] after coming clean with the fact that they definitely don't love each other. Apparently, the actors felt a bit differently. There is also plenty of speculation surrounding [[Angel Coulby]] and Rupert Young (Sir Leon) considering their closeness on-set and their tendency to do a lot of publicity together.
* [[Separated At Birth Casting]]: It's easy enough to buy Hunith as Merlin's mother.
* [[So My Kids Can Watch]]: [[Nathaniel Parker]] (Agravaine) apparently joined the cast because his children were fans of the show.
* [[Throw It In]]: Arthur smushing his foot in Merlin's face in "[[Merlin (TV series)/Recap/S01/E10 The Moment of Truth|The Moment of Truth]]" was ad-libbed by Bradley, and Colin's reaction is real.
* [[Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things]]: The reason Bradley stopped updating his [[Twitter]] account (it's still there but is no longer being updated by him personally), as [[Fan Dumb|"fans" started attacking his girlfriend on Twitter.]] The girlfriend in question, Georgia King, also closed down her Twitter account at the same time. [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/2012/01/01/actress-georgia-king-closes-twitter-account-after-being-targeted-by-jealous-fans-86908-23670909/ The whole thing warranted at least one newspaper to run with the story].
* [[Word of Saint Paul]]:
** In interviews, [[Katie McGrath]] was pretty adamant that Aithusa was female, though the only mention of the White Dragon's gender was when it was first introduced, when Kilgarrah refers to it as "he".
** Eoin Macken, who plays Gwaine, has mentioned that his character wouldn't react much if he discovered Merlin had magic. Given his gratitude towards the Euchdag and the fact that he only seems to truly hate sorcerers who commit crimes, this agrees with canon so far. Bradley James has also said that Arthur has reached the point where he's ready to learn about Merlin.
== General Trivia ==
* James Callis, who is best known for playing Gaius Baltar on ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', not only played opposite a character called Gaius on ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', but rode a horse called Galactico.
Line 62 ⟶ 82:
** And from ''[[Poirot]]'' we have the Callieach ("Five Little Pigs"), Queen Annis ("The Mystery of the Blue Train"), Edwin Muirden (again) and Princess Elena ("Halloween Party").
{{worksubpagefooter}}
| |||