Trivia / Nancy Drew (2019)

• Acting in the Dark: None of the actors were told the first season mystery's solution, even the one playing the culprit.
  • Averted, however, with the revelation that Nancy is the biological child of Lucy Sable and Ryan Hudson. Scott Wolf, who plays Carson Drew, and Riley Smith, who plays Ryan, were told about the secret from the start. Kennedy McMann (who plays Nancy Drew) figured the truth out on her own, appropriately enough.
• Actor-Shared Background: Adam Beach and Chief McGinnis are of First Nations origin, except that the former is Canadian.
• California Doubling: Like most CW productions, the show is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, which doubles for Maine.
• Channel Hop: It was initially announced that Paramount+ had picked up the series' streaming rights. However, it instead joined 2019 CW stablemates Batwoman and Katy Keene on HBO Max.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Just like Captain Thom in the show, Anthony Natale is also Deaf in real life.
• Fake American:
  • Chief McGinnis is played by Adam Beach, a Canadian of First Nations origin.
  • Bess's played by British actress Maddison Jaizani. Bess dropped her faux American accent by Season 1 mid finale as everyone knew by that point she's British.
• The Other Darrin: Andrew Airlie takes over from Martin Donovan as Everett Hudson.
• Promoted Fanboy: Kennedy McMann mentioned in interviews that she read the ND novels before she went into acting and got the part for Nancy Drew. Which might explain how she figured out the truth about Nancy’s origins.^note Her mom, Lisa McMann, is a novel writer.
• Real-Life Relative: Shiloh Ryn Smith, Riley Smith's infant daughter, made two cameos as Baby Lucy and Baby Nancy to highlight the Strong Family Resemblance between the mother and daughter when they were both infants.
• Screwed by the Network: Almost, producer Larry Teng revealed that new CW owners Nexstar didn't notify them of the show's cancellation until their studio reached out to the new network brass on an unrelated matter. When they got the notice, the entire season was almost completely done, leading to the writers/producers having to scramble to create a conclusive finale.
• Stock Sound Effects: Funnily enough, some of the sound effects used in the show can also be found in the Nancy Drew games.
• What Could Have Been:
  • This show's initial concept was supposed to be based on the life of an adult Nancy Drew, played by Sarah Shahi in 2016. The concept never took off aside from the idea being pitched to TV and streaming service networks.
  • Freddie Prinze Jr. was initially announced as playing Carson Drew but Scott Wolf ultimately took over the role.
  • There were aspirations for a Nancy Drew/Tom Swift crossover involving Detective Tamura working with Tom to apprehend the Signet Ring Man, a recurring Tom Swift character and hit man for The Road Back, for killing Cecila Hudson. Nancy would have appeared at the end of the episode to help with the prison transfer.