Author Stephen King cameos as "Bachman", the cleanup expert. King sometimes writes under the pen name Richard Bachman, including 2 novels that have been adapted to feature films: The Running Man (1987) and Thinner (1996). King was offered the cameo by show creator Kurt Sutter, and later said in an interview, "Ordinarily I would say no but he said he'd put me on a Harley, so here I am." Sutter also assured King that his character would be doing something "suitably nasty."
'Short Strand' is a name attributed to the Short Strand area of Belfast in Northern Ireland where 'peace lines' have been erected to separate Loyalist and Republican residents from causing disorder. The actual spot where Cameron Hayes is left is the junction of Madrid Street and Bryson Street, against a peace line covered in murals depicting violence. Madrid Road once ran East to west but was separated with high walls and fence 'peace lines' in 1969, a structure that the British Government only intended to have in place for six months.
Patrick St. Esprit (Elliott Oswald) and Paula Malcolmson (Maureen Ashby) both appear in the film "The Hunger games: Catching fire", Esprit as "Commander Thread" and Malcolmson as "Katniss' mother" (Malcolmson played the same role in subsequent and prior films of the franchise).