Trivia / Call of Duty: Vanguard

• Actor Allusion: Laura Bailey once again plays a Red-Headed Heroine who is either Russian or slaying Nazis in a video game.
• Fake Russian: The Russian Protagonist Polina Petrova is played by Laura Bailey, an American.
• Meaningful Release Date: Oh so very narrowly averted for the Snoop Dogg Operator bundle, as it was released on April 19th, 2022, a day shy of 4/20.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jackson refuses to tell Mateo what he named their plane. Mateo replies, "Fine. Keep your secrets."
  • Kingsley at one point refers to Lucas Riggs as "insubordinate [and] churlish."
• Similarly Named Works: Shares its name with Medal of Honor: Vanguard, another World War 2 First-Person Shooter from Call of Duty's rival series. Medal of Honor: Vanguard was somewhat obscure due to being a Reformulated Game based on Medal of Honor: Airborne and made for the Playstation 2 (which was at the time a last-gen console) and Nintendo Wii, while Call of Duty: Vanguard was 2021's mainline Call of Duty title. The "Vanguard" in the title refers to paratroopers in Medal of Honor (due to them being the first deployed into various battles) and in Call of Duty to the "Vanguard" team who are the world's first special forces group.
• Technical Advisor: Sledgehammer Games consulted with World War II historian Marty Morgan for this game and Call of Duty: WWII, assisting them in their research and studying of material, including traveling to key points throughout Europe and traveling routes taken by soldiers in order to capture the essence of the war and make it as authentic as possible (just ignore the particle accelerator and F2000 they added in Season 5, as well as the less anachronistic weapons in the earlier seasons).
• What Could Have Been: Vanguard was originally conceived as a full-on alternate history game inspired by Wolfenstein: The New Order, showing resistance to Nazi occupation following a German victory in World War II. This likely accounts for the game's more pulpy, over-the-top tone and significantly reduced adherance to historical accuracy. It was changed to its current form mid-development as Activision wanted to tie the game in with the new Modern Warfare series and the Black Ops series in a sort of Shared Universe.

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