Colbert Bump: While by no means obscure, the book has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after Sky: Children of the Light's collaboration event (where the player gets to accompany and befriend the Prince in a loose retelling of the original story) took place.
In honor of the Prince's home asteroid, an actual asteroid was named 46610 Besixdouze. note B612, if taken as a hexadecimal number, is 46610 in decimal, and "Besixdouze" is French for B-612. ("B612" is not a valid asteroid designation.) The asteroid 45 Eugenia now has a moon named "Petit-Prince".
B-612 also inspired the name of the B612 Foundation, which assists the search for near-Earth asteroids.
Science Imitates Art: Petit-Prince, the first asteroid moon to have been discovered with a ground-based telescope, was named as a dual reference to Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial, and as an allusion to the book. In the words of its discoverers:
Both princes were young and adventurous, and had little fear of danger. Both were of rather small stature. They both left the confines of their cozy little worlds (asteroid B612 for the Little Prince and Chislehurst for the Prince Imperial). They both then undertook long journeys to end up in Africa, whereupon they both meet rather violent deaths ... And in both cases they lay alone for one night each after "death" and then "returned" back home...
What Could Have Been: Genesis very nearly did a concept album based on the book; it ultimately became The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The illustrations and themes of the book would later loosely inspire their 1980 Duke album.
The 1974 film:
Actor-Inspired Element: Bob Fosse choreographed his own dance sequence as The Snake, and happily did it under a heavy black suit in the warm Tunisian weather.
Creator Backlash: Lerner and Loewe were very disappointed with the film's Hollywood treatment, the latter even refusing to visit London to supervise the recording of the score, according to legend.
Dark Horse Casting: The majority of the cast were stage actors, with only Gene Wilder having any kind of film presence. Steven Warner only had a bit part in one other film.
Stunt Casting: Gene Wilder in the small but significant role of The Fox, not appearing until an hour into the film, with only fourteen minutes of screen time.
Frank Sinatra expressed interest in the role of the pilot in the 1974 film, and the producers were on board with it. Director Stanley Donen, who worked with Sinatra on previous films, turned him down.
Stanley Donen: The part called for a man who must be dominated by a 6-year-old boy. It's difficult for me to imagine Frank relating to a child in such a way. I didn't want to risk the movie on him."
Richard Burton was the first choice for the pilot, based on his work in Camelot, but he turned it down.
Gene Wilder very nearly pulled out of the production in order to film Blazing Saddles as a personal favor to his close friend Mel Brooks. He ended up being able to convince Stanley Donen to film all of his scenes at the very end of the production instead of at the beginning, allowing him to appear in both this and Blazing Saddles.
The 1978 anime:
Children Voicing Children: In the 1978 anime, the Prince was voiced by a then-10-year-old Taiki Matsuno (credited under his real name, Tatsuya Matsuno).
Missing Episode: Out of the 39 episodes of the 1978 anime series, only 26 were dubbed into English and aired in North America. Also, only 35 of those 39 were aired in the Japanese broadcast, with the remaining four released later on video.
which assists the search for near-Earth asteroids.