Trivia / Sense8

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• Actor-Inspired Element: It was Tuppence Middleton's idea to bleach and streak Riley's hair.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Lito is mentioned to be of Spanish descent; his actor Miguel Angel Silvestre is Spanish.
  • Wolfgang's family is mentioned to be from East Germany, like his actor Max Riemelt.
  • Similarly, Tina Desai is from Mumbai (Bombay), and Bae Doona is from Seoul. Like Riley, Tuppence Middleton is not from London but lives there.
  • Nomi Marks is a trans woman, played by trans woman Jamie Clayton.
  • Like Amanita, Freema Agyeman is a biracial woman.
  • Nomi mentions in one episodes that she doesn't know how to drive. In real life, Jamie Clayton has also never learned how to drive.
• California Doubling: Averted. Every scene was shot in the country or city it's set in. Particularly impressive when you realise the first season is spread over eight countries^note  USA, Mexico, Iceland, England, Germany, Kenya, India and South Korea with the second season adding even more locations. Unfortunately this made the show incredibly expensive, with the budget often quoted at $9 million per episode.
• Cancellation: As it was one of Netflix's most expensive productions along with The Get Down, it was on the chopping block when Netflix chose to cancel the latter. Sense8's notice of cancellation followed soon after. Unlike The Get Down, the network gave in to audience pressure and greenlit a two-hour finale less than a month after the cancellation was announced.
• The Cast Showoff: Miguel Angel Silvestre's flashy barcraft abilities were written into season 2 as part of Sun's plot.
• Cast the Expert: Musician KK as Riley's pianist father.
• Creator Breakdown: Lilly Wachowski had to take a leave of absence for Season 2 after her traumatizing forced outing as being transgender, marking the first time one of the siblings has done a project on their own.
• Fake American: Brit Freema Agyeman as Amanita.
• Fake Nationality: English actors Aml Ameen and Tuppence Middleton play a Kenyan and an Icelander respectively. Spanish actor Miguel Ángel Silvestre plays Mexican Lito, who's mentioned to be of Spanish descent. American Terrence Mann plays British Whispers.
• International Coproduction: Filming was done in nine different locations with the help of different production studios.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Max Riemelt, in addition to playing Wolfgang, does the voice over for the German dub as well.
• The Other Darrin: Aml Ameen played Capheus in the first season, but was replaced by Toby Onwumere in the second.
• Playing Against Type: After a lifetime of family-friendly roles, Sylvester McCoy appears in this decidedly adult-oriented show, made shockingly clear when his very first line is "Holy shit!"
• Production Posse: Tuppence Middleton (who appeared in Jupiter Ascending), Doona Bae (who appeared in both Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas), Joe Pantoliano (who appeared in Bound (1996) and The Matrix) and Kick Gurry (Speed Racer and Jupiter Ascending). Several of the production staff are also Wachowski mainstays, such as Dan Glass (visual effects supervisor for the siblings for every film of theirs since The Matrix Reloaded) and John Toll (director of photography for Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas). Additionally, Tom Tykwer (who co-directed Cloud Atlas) collaborated on the music and directed several episodes.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Trans woman Nomi is played by actual trans woman Jamie Clayton.
  • Downplayed with Will. Like the rest of his cluster, he is pansexual according to Word of God. Will's actor Brian J. Smith came out as gay after the show ended.
  • Even though it's a queer series, this is also subverted, where queer actors don't play queer characters; Erendira Ibarra (Daniela) is bi but plays straight - in a pseudo-polyamorous relationship with two men, in fact.
  • The concept is notably discussed in the show when all of Lito's acting offers after coming out are not only gay, but most die (besides this show, Ibarra's recent roles have also been pretty gay, as have Smith's).
• Reality Subtext:
  • Lana Wachowski, a trans woman who went through years of anguish over her gender identity and even attempted suicide over it, pours every bit of that rage into Nomi's story. It was also revealed after the first season's release that both siblings had transitioned. However, the idea for a transgender character actually came from J. Michael Straczynski. See also Actor-Shared Background.
  • Speaking of rage, there's a justified undercurrent of vitriol about Lito's outing that is especially poignant considering Lilly Wachowski was also forced out of the closet and, in fact, couldn't work on Season 2 due to the emotional stress.
  • Toby Onwumere's first scene as Capheus contains a few thinly-veiled jabs at the change in actors.
• Screwed by the Network: Netflix announced that the show would not be renewed for a third season due to low ratings that didn't justify the show's massive budget (at least $9 million per episode). In response, fans created petitions and a hashtag calling for the show to be uncancelled, as well as threats to cancel their Netflix subscriptions en-masse. The backlash did succeed to some extent - although Netflix wouldn't green-light a third season, they have allowed for a two-hour long special to bring closure to the series.^note Since the service depends less on ratings than simply pure subscription numbers for its money, they're very motivated to ensure their original programming will have decent closure even if it has to end before the crew was ready.
• Trolling Creator: The announcement of a second season took an unusually long time by Netflix standards, making a lot of fans very worried. Turns out they just wanted to make the announcement on the cluster's birthday, August 8.
• Troubled Production:
  • While details are scarce, it seems that Aml Ameen was quite troublesome to work with, as several other cast and crew members, especially Jamie Clayton, expressed their relief when Capheus was recast for Season 2.
  • Lana Wachowski was tasked with overseeing Season 2 alone for the first time in her career after Lily had to take personal time off.
• Uncredited Role: In "Fear Never Fixed Anything", Nomi receives the "e-death" program from someone wearing a V mask. The character is listed in the end credits as "The Guy" and it's unknown who played the role.
• Underage Casting: Hoy was a founding member of BPO in 1952. Sylvester McCoy was only 9 years old at that time.
• What Could Have Been: The series was originally planned for a five-season run on Netflix; however, the show became too expensive and the show was cancelled after its second season, and subsequently renewed for a single-episode special to tie up most of the loose ends that the series still had.
• Word of God: When many fans wondered why the rest of the cluster didn't rescue Wolfgang in the Season 2 finale, the crew stated that he was being held somewhere else in a much more secure facility, and admitted they should have made it clearer that Whispers was Visiting him during the interrogation rather than actually being in the room.

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