Trivia / Leprechaun

• California Doubling: Set in North Dakota; Filmed in California.
• Channel Hop: Went from Trimark, who produced the first few movies, to Lionsgate beginning with Back 2 The Hood.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Jennifer Aniston recalls being quite proud of the film early on, since it was her first. But then she became famous for Friends and thus a campy horror flick didn't reflect too well on her. In 2019, she revealed that, eight years earlier, her then-husband Justin Theroux had made her watch it for the first time since she had made it. She says she kept cringing and tried to leave the room or get the remote out of his hand.
  • Subverted with Warwick Davis. He was ashamed of the film at first, but he warmed to it when it became popular. He had a blast reprising the role every few years, and it shows. Even though he's since retired from the role, it's not out of shame, but concern of doing violent movies as he was raising his children, and he says that he'd be open to returning to horror once they grow up.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Brazil and Portugal: The Goblin
  • Canada: The Abominable Goblin
  • Croatia: Sprite
  • Greece: The Elf
  • Hungary: Killer Goblin
  • Mexico: The Cursed Goblin
  • Poland: Dwarf
  • Serbia: An Evil Elf
  • Spain: The Night of the Goblin
  • Turkey: Lost Treasure
• Executive Meddling:
  • What turned out to be a positive version. The original film was supposed to be a kid-friendly horror film. The producers felt it would work better as an adult themed horror film, and additional scenes were shot to up the gore quotient. And thus, a horror franchise was born...
  • The studio wanted the then-unknown Jennifer Aniston to bleach her hair blonde for the first film. The director refused.
• Fake Irish: Warwick Davis is British but Lubdan the Leprechaun has an Irish accent.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • Germany: Leprechaun: The Killer Goblin
• What Could Have Been:
  • There were plans to have the Bluewater Productions comic series crossover with the Warlock (1989)-based comics made by the same company. On the subject of crossovers, according to Tony Todd, he was once approached about a possible Candyman vs Leprechaun film. Todd sat there in Stunned Silence trying to process that the man was serious.
  • Warwick Davis also claimed that a seventh film was going to be set in the Wild West, but the franchise is apparently (finally) dead. Davis has also mentioned a potential pirate-themed sequel in numerous interviews. Whether this was ever a concrete idea or mere wishful thinking isn't clear.
  • Brian Trenchard-Smith, the director of 3 and 4 revealed that years back he had pitched another film that would have placed the Leprechaun in the White House.
  • The scene in the original film with the Leprechaun eating the Bland-Name Product version of Lucky Charms was filmed (with the approval of General Mills) with an actual box of Lucky Charms. The company later withdrew their permission as they felt the scene was disrespectful. Not only did they reshoot the scene, but they snuck in a blatant Take That! at the company: Alex's Pre-Mortem One-Liner "Fuck you, Lucky Charms." For those wondering, the original line would have been The Tagline "Your luck just ran out."
  • Early drafts for Origins were actually a lot closer in tone with the original movies.
  • Franchise creator Mark Jones once came up with a potential spin off/sister franchise entitled 'Vamprechaun', which is pretty much what it sounds like: a leprechaun that is turned into a vampire (He bites his victims on their ankles!). He would have loved to have Warwick Davis play the title character, and was open to potentially tying it into the Leprechaun franchise if necessary. It still might happen one day, if Jones can find the right time and funding.