- Acting for Two: Of a sort. The 'Grace' persona that Mystique uses to seduce the security guard is just Rebecca Romijn out of make-up. She's billed for playing Mystique and Grace in the end credits.
- Actor-Inspired Element: Both Ian McKellen (who is gay) and Bryan Singer (bisexual) worked with the screenwriters to make the scene in which Bobby Drake tells his parents he is a mutant look more like a "coming-out" scene.
- California Doubling: Hatley Castle in Victoria, British Columbia was used for the exterior and most of the interior of Xavier's school.
- Cast the Expert:
- Professional mimes were hired for the scenes where Xavier freezes people in the room - naturally because they'd be able to hold still for longer than regular extras.
- Alan Cumming speaks fluent German and was cast as Nightcrawler for this reason.
- Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
- In a ridiculously inaccurate negative review by Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post it quickly became clear that he did not bother to watch the movie, or was distracted for most of its length. At one point, he said that Rogue had the power to reverse time, even going so far as to call her "the Mistress of Rewind." He was apparently confused by the scenes in which she extinguishes flames (using Pyro's power) and makes Wolverine's wounds reappear (he let her borrow his Healing Factor).
- A review in the Irish Times complained that a character who had been killed in the first film was somehow alive in the second... except he wasn't: Mystique the shapeshifter had taken his place. This was not only pointed out explicitly in the first film (for those viewers too sleepy to notice the characteristic flash of yellow eyes) but was a pivotal plot point in the second, which makes you wonder if the reviewer actually bothered to watch the film.
- One TIME magazine profile of Alan Cumming described him as playing a "mutant villain". As in, Nightcrawler. Granted, it's an easy mistake to make if you only read the Wikipedia article on the movie, in which the first sentence of the plot summary reads, "Nightcrawler, a teleporting mutant, attempts to assassinate the President of the United States," and (as of this writing) doesn't actually explain that he was Brainwashed and Crazy even if you read on from there. Perhaps they should have bypassed the question of which side he was on and just pointed out that he spent up to nine hours getting the makeup put on him, which would be the only interesting part to someone who hadn't seen the movie anyway.
- Creator Backlash: Alan Cumming had a miserable time on the set, describing it as "dangerous" and "abusive" due to Bryan Singer's drug problems and hostile behaviour. The studio failed to intervene and he ended up gaining a lot of weight due to binge eating and drinking whenever he got home because of how upset he was. He was still willing to return for X-Men: The Last Stand, but Nightcrawler was ultimately cut from the movie due to the role being too small to be considered worth the hassle. However, Cumming would finally portray Kurt once more in Avengers: Doomsday.
- Creator-Chosen Casting:
- Bryan Singer only had Brian Cox in mind for Col. Stryker, having been a fan of the actor ever since he saw him in Manhunter.
- Alan Cumming was always Singer's first choice for Nightcrawler, but he initially couldn't accept due to a scheduling conflict. The film spent so long in development that he became available.
- Deleted Role: The film was meant to feature brief cameos from Beast and Gambit during the brainwashed Professor X's telepathic attack on the mutants, which would have caused their powers to flare involuntarily. The Gambit piece was shot with Simon Sherr playing him, but it was cut from the film. The characters would later appear in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (with Taylor Kitsch replacing Sherr), respectively.
- Deleted Scene: See here.
- Disowned Adaptation: Chris Claremont doesn't necessarily hate the film, but over the years has come to view it as a poor adaptation of God Loves, Man Kills due to all the changes to the original storyline.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Hugh Jackman was given a nutritionist to get in shape for his role as Wolverine, and gained twenty pounds. On the make-up front, Alan Cumming joined Rebecca Romijn in the long and arduous process of becoming a blue Mutant.
- Fake American: The Scottish Brian Cox as Stryker. There's also Ty Olsson as Mitchell and Chiara Zanni in her Casting Gag cameo as a White House tour guide, both Canadian.
- Fake Nationality:
- The German Nightcrawler is played by Scotsman Alan Cumming.
- Australian Hugh Jackman once again plays the Canadian Wolverine.
- Chinese-American Kelly Hu plays the Japanese Deathstrike.
- Making Use of the Twin:
- A hilarious variation. Hugh Jackman's sister visited the set one day. As a joke, she was made up like Wolverine and walked around the set in costume. She even shot some scenes. Bryan Singer didn't realise the difference at first, merely wondering why Hugh was acting so strangely that day. Unfortunately, no footage or pictures have ever been publicly released of this prank.
- A straight example when Mystique impersonates the janitor in Stryker's office. She walks by the real one while in disguise. Identical twins were used to achieve the shot.
- Market-Based Title: The film's simply called X-Men 2 in the UK, France, Brazil, Finland and several other countries.
- The Merch: The Mazda RX-8 X-Men Car, a limited edition Mazda RX-8 based on the Mazda RX-8 in the movie. Available in "Mutant Blue" with an X-shaped grille and an enlarged X on the nameplate.
- No Stunt Double: Anna Paquin did the wirework for Rogue getting sucked out of the Blackbird herself.
- On-Set Injury: Hugh Jackman was injured doing a stunt in the X-Jet that caused him to bleed.
- Orphaned Reference: A planned idea was for Jean to be rendered blind after her fight with the brainwashed Cyclops. It was filmed as such but dropped later in production. If you pay close attention when Wolverine shuts the dam door to save them from the water, Jean is the only one not looking at him.
- The Other Darrin:
- Aaron Stanford, Kea Wong and Katie Stuart replaced Alex Burton, Katrina Florence and Sumela Kay as Pyro, Jubilee and Shadowcat respectively. The replacement of Alex Burton in particular drew some press, as he filed a civil lawsuit against three of Bryan Singer's friends for alleged sexual assault during the production of the first film.
- In the Japanese dub, Kazuhiro Yamaji replaces the late Kiyoyuki Yanada as Wolverine.
- Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Hugh Jackman had hair extensions for Van Helsing. Then he went and filmed the reshot ending and his hair is clearly bigger.
- Recycled Script: The actions sequence with the two fighter jets chasing the X-Jet pulls the same exact stunt back-to-back with Storm and Jean Grey where two enemies are coming at them, and they succeed to stop the first only to fail at stopping the second. To explain, Storm summons up tornados to take down the two jets. She's able to get the first one, but the other jet manages to fire two rockets at the X-Jet. Jean Grey then works to use her psychic powers to take down the two rockets. She's able to get the first one, but the other rocket manages to hit the X-Jet.
- Refitted for Sequel: The bathroom set was originally built for a flashback scene Cyclops discovering his powers, that was left before being shot. Also, a scene similar to what they'd intended turns up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and later X-Men: Apocalypse.
- Troubled Production: Filming wasn't nearly as troubled as the first film, but Bryan Singer's onset attitude, something made worse by his drug abuse and alcoholism, caused problems again.
- Late in production, producer Tom DeSanto grew very concerned about Singer's increasingly erratic behavior. When DeSanto came to the set one day and found the director, along with several crew members, apparently under the heavy influence of narcotics, he tried to halt production out of fear someone could get hurt. This resulted in a long, loud argument between the two of them that almost turned physical at many points.
- And indeed someone did get hurt. While filming a scene on the X Jet, Singer decided to skip ahead to a scene scheduled for the following day that required a stunt from Hugh Jackman. Because it wasn't supposed to have been filmed that day, the stunt coordinator was not present and Jackman ended up injured and bleeding. Ralph Winter then ordered production shut down, which led the studio to overrule him and summon DeSanto back to LA.
- The cast, still in costume, responded by staging an impromptu intervention, confronting Singer in his trailer, telling him that his drug and drinking problem was getting way out of hand, and they felt worried, both about Singer's physical and mental health and about their own safety on set, and threatened to quit if DeSanto left. It was during this confrontation that Halle Berry reportedly told Singer to "kiss my black ass", a story often repeated but given different contexts; according to Alan Cumming, Berry had been telling Singer about several former colleagues who had been similarly addicted to drugs before turning their lives around, to which Singer accused her of being "full of shit" and threatened to fire her or anyone else who broached the topic of his addictions, leading to her angrily storming out. Singer has through his reps denied any of this.
- Wag the Director: By shooting time for the film, Halle Berry had more clout, and used it to give herself a bigger part (and more money) in the movie, and lo, here comes her conversations with Nightcrawler and use of powers against the missiles.
- What Could Have Been:
- Neil Patrick Harris and Ethan Embry auditioned for the part of Kurt Wagner before Alan Cumming was cast.
- Early on in the film's production, Shaquille O'Neal lobbied to play the part of Bishop. Due to David Hayter not having any familiarity with the character, Shaq didn't get the part. The character would later debut in Days of Future Past, played by Omar Sy.
- Ray Park was going to return as a brainwashed Toad and get into a fight with Nightcrawler while the latter and Storm were trying to rescue the mutant kids. However, schedule conflicts prevented this, and as a result, the set that was built just for this scene was not used.
- Sabretooth was planned to return, this time as Stryker's bodyguard. However, the part was rewritten into Anne Reynolds, Stryker's bodyguard from the comics, who would have been granted Lady Deathstrike's mutant powers and adamantium claws for this film. Her role was then filled by Lady Deathstrike herself and given longer fight scenes so that the movie would have more action.
- Originally, Magneto would have rescued Professor X from Dark Cerebro and escaped with the other X-Men instead of trying to Kill All Humans, but this was rewritten to keep Magneto's ruthlessness. Also, initially he was the one executing the plan by fixing Dark Cerebro, not Mystique deceiving Jason.
- Pyro attacking the police cars was planned to end with Storm putting out the fires with a sudden rainfall. The budget didn't allow for this, so they had Rogue drain his powers and put the fires out herself.
- The scene in which Storm and Nightcrawler rescue Xavier was going to be much longer and quite more dramatic. Jason would have trapped them in trippy hallucinations, which they escaped only because Dark Cerebro was falling apart and it disrupted his illusions. They would have next talked Xavier into realizing the ruse, and the professor would have engaged Jason in a psychic battle, mind-raping him and finally defeating him with Storm's help. Jason would have then shown remorse on his face before being sent into the abyss by a falling girder, after which the three X-Men escaped narrowly.
- Hank was supposed to be shown turning into Beast when the "destroy all Mutants" plan was launched, showing that his human-looking self was induced through serums. Other mutants who would have been shown affected by the plan were Marrow and Gambit. (In another cameo-related affair, a young Multiple Man was going to appear at the beginning of the film in a scene with Siryn.)
- Several versions of the script had Jean surviving the film and returning with the others. This was kept in the official novelization.
- Angel was planned to appear as a student at the Xavier Institute. He would've been one of the teens taken captive during the raid on the school, and Stryker would've forcibly transformed him into Archangel at his lab. This subplot was cut, but the X-rays of Angel's wings can still be seen during the scenes in Stryker's facility.
- The Danger Room was going to feature in the film. When Scott, Jean, and Storm are away, Wolverine would take some of the students for a workout in the room. A sneak peek of how it would look was even in the teaser trailer. But the budget got cut down, and the scene had to be scrapped.
- Many of Cyclops' scenes were cut from the final film. Aside from the extended deleted scene mentioned above, he also had a longer fight scene with Deathstrike.
- A planned idea was for Jean to be rendered blind after her fight with the brainwashed Cyclops. It was filmed as such but dropped later in production. If you pay close attention when Wolverine shuts the dam door to save them from the water, Jean is the only one not looking at him.
- Nick Fury was planned to be in this film but was removed from the script.
- Kelly Hu actually enjoyed playing Lady Deathstrike and was open to returning in a sequel. Deathstrike would returin in Deadpool & Wolverine, but Hu herself didn't come back to the role; being replaced by Jade Lye.
- Similarly, Brian Cox thoroughly enjoyed playing William Stryker in this film, and for a while was interested in reprising the role at some point. Unfortunately, he no longer is interested in the idea as of 2024, especially after was replaced by Danny Huston in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
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