Here’s All The Easter Eggs In Netflix’s Hollywood Arts
From a subtle Ariana Grande reference to recreating Tori Vega’s iconic “Make It Shine” locker, there are plenty of Easter eggs in Netflix’s new series Hollywood Arts that you might have missed. How many of these did you catch?
It’s cool to learn that Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) has become a huge pop star. She and Sikowitz are even on the Hollywood Arts Wall of Fame.
Trina’s shirt features the poster from her iconic one-woman show “Chicago” on it. And, right off the bat, Trina wants to redo her Showcase moment from the original series. Her old headshots from the Victorious episode “A Film by Dale Squires” are also seen in the backseat of her car.
One of the biggest throwbacks is to Tori’s “Make It Shine” locker, which has become part of Hollywood Arts lore. When the locker is opened, we see the same posters and artwork Tori had in the original series, but with some very deliberate updates when compared to an old set visit video. There’s an emoji covering Dan Schneider’s face and new quotes and stickers covering a Katy Perry lyric.
Taking a closer look at some of the lockers, you can see a Splatburger logo from The Thundermans, a Sikowitz-themed locker, and a Judy Garland locker with a glowing rainbow. This could be a meaningful nod to Ariana Grande. She dressed as Dorothy in the “April Fools Day” episode of Victorious and played Glinda in the Wicked films.
There are references to products and foods from other Nickelodeon shows. There are pear phones that were seen across iCarly, Victorious, Zoey 101, and Drake & Josh. There’s a Bots tablet from Sam & Cat. Trina is seen drinking Jet Brew from Victorious and eating Fladoodles chips from iCarly.
Remember Kwakoo who worked at the Japanese restaurant Nozu on Victorious? There are bottles of Kwakoo’s Apple Cider in the show. When Trina and Jen Z go shopping, they have bags for parody brands like Bandana Republic and Mercedes Lens that were seen in iCarly. If you look closer into Oscar’s resume, he has credits that include references to Wicked, Jet Brew, and pear phones. The new group of friends also perform at Karaoke Dokie just like the original gang did.
Kira Kosarin from The Thundermans makes an appearance as one of Trina’s old girl group members and she directs an episode, while Nathan Kress from iCarly direct episodes. Yvette Nicole Brown has been playing Helen Dubois since Drake & Josh as the manager of the Premiere Theater. She became principal of Hollywood Arts in Victorious and reprises that role in Hollywood Arts. Eric Lange also returns as Sikowitz.
Matt Bennett reprises his role as Robbie Shapiro, now a love interest for Trina. His puppet Rex also appears, continuing to be voiced by Jake Farrow who created this new series. There are quick references to Beck and Jade, Sinjin, and even the potential “will they, won’t they” Robbie and Cat had back in the day.
The first half of Hollywood Arts season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
