Trivia / Return of Ultraman

• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Due to budget and scheduling issues Shin Kishida (Ken Sakata) and Rumi Sakakibara (Aki Sakata) ended up having to leave the show. Leading to the decision to kill their characters off in the Alien Nackle two parter.
• Contest Winner Cameo: Episode 34 "The Life that Can't be Forgiven" was the winner of a script-making contest held by Tsuburaya Productions. Its creator, Shinichiro Kobayashi, would later create a similar script for an identical contest held by Toho Studios in the 1980s, resulting in Godzilla vs. Biollante.
• Creator's Favorite: Jiro Dan, Hideki Go's actor nominated Twin Tail as his favorite monster.
• Died During Production: This show was being conceived by Eiji Tsuburaya on his deathbed, and his son brought the idea to fruition.
• Dueling Works: With Kamen Rider with Return of Ultraman coming out a mere 18 days after it. Both were huge successes critically and financially.
• Follow the Leader: Helped launch the "Henshin Boom" along with Kamen Rider in the 70s.
• Hey, It's That Sound!:
  • Earthtron's roar is that of Gyaos, while Twin Tail uses that of another Gamera foe, Barugon.
  • Gudon's roar is modified from King Kong's.
  • Bemstar used Gezora's squeaks.
  • Beacon uses Telesdon's roar.
• Prop Recycling:
  • Detton was made from the Telesdon suit from Ultraman, which had greatly deteriorated by that point. In fact, Detton's role was originally meant to be for Telesdon.
  • Kingsaurus III's head was remade into Femigon's.
  • Ghostron was loosely modified from Earthtron.
  • Magnedon is a heavily-modified Eldertordoise suit, repainted black with back spikes added.
  • King Maimai (second stage) was created from Gudon.
  • Zanika was remade from the Beacon suit.
  • Alien Baltan, Jr. was remade from the Ultra Fight Baltan suit.
  • Kingstron was remade into Robonez. Coincidentally, they are both killed in the exact same manner.
  • Narrowly averted with Shugaron, as the concept art shows it having a body shape and face modeled after Dancan, an Ultraseven monster; it's probable Tsuburaya intended to recycle the Dancan suit into Shugaron, but ultimately decide to create a new suit instead.
• Role Reprise: For the first of many times to come, Kohji Moritsugu and Susumu Kurobe respectively reprise Dan Moroboshi and Shin Hayata in Episode 38 "When the Ultra Star Shines".
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, Eiji wanted the show to be a revival of the original, with the original Ultraman returning to Earth and Hayata reclaiming his identity as Ultraman, however Hajime scrapped these plans. It made more sense from a merchandising standpoint to create a new hero.
  • Telesdon was originally supposed to reappear, but the suit was too deteriorated and Detton was created as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute.
  • Black King was intended to be the brother of Red King and would have used the same suit.
  • Much of the behind-the-scenes concept art reveals the original designs of the various monsters from the show... and oh boy, do they look different. For starters, the draft designs of two of the series' most iconic monsters, Bemstar hardly having a neck (with it's head fusing together with the belly) and Muruchi's super-deformed head hidden behind absolutely gigantic headfins (giving it the appearance of a Tiny-Headed Behemoth) is a stark contrast to how fans would picture them, given both monsters being iconic Ultramen foes. There's also Alien Messie having breasts (implying that the alien was originally female), Grotes having Extra Eyes, Kodaigon armed with a staff, Twin Tail with a bottle-shaped neck (another iconic monster with a completely baffling first draft), Granadas having an Overly-Long Tongue, Red Killer looking almost like a canine (instead of the dinosaur-looking creature in the final film), an Alien Sasahiler who's an Armless Biped, Mognezun having far longer spikes and a red-eyed cyborg-skeleton-dinosaur-thingy which never made it out of the book, probably because it looks too complicated to be created in live-action form.
  • On a lesser note, King Maimai at least looks pretty much the same as its live-action form, save for its adult form having grey skin.
• Written by Cast Member: Shin Kishida, who played Ken Sakata, wrote Episode 35 (the one with Priz-Ma), which probably explains why Ken plays such a large role in the episode.
• You Look Familiar: Mieko Mita (Junko Shirakawa) as one of Aki's friends in Episodes 5 and 6. She's the one in the green dress, the same one who cries at the hospital.

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