I would like to start by saying a large welcome to the European players of Wizard101. As you no doubt are well aware, Wizard101 contains MANY references to American pop culture that at the time may go unnoticed by folks not familiar with that pop culture. Much in the same way my knowledge of European pop culture is limited to Doctor Who and what I’ve seen on BBC America.
Many forums and threads across social media have documented many of the Easter Eggs and pop culture references that young wizards have discovered. That said, I’ve never seen an all-encompassing list. As young wizard who is on the far side of 50 (yes I was alive during the final stages of the Vietnam war and the resignation of President Nixon), I’ve also realized that there are number of references that have sailed over the heads of much younger (than I) wizards. I would guess as well that young wizards who are not as familiar with American pop culture would zip and skip past these references without a second thought.
This driving need of mine to help educate my fellow young wizards came to head with the announcement of Lemuria as a new world in early 2021. It was mentioned on KILive that the unifying theme of Lemuria would be “Heroes”. Great speculation ensued that KI would be using aspects of the Heroes101 game developed by KI beginning in 2012 before it was shelved in December of 2014. *side note* (I’d still like to see THAT game KI) *. When Lemuria dropped there was a hue and cry from American wizards that Lemuria was a hodge-podge world with no unifying theme. Many of those voicing their concerns were of a younger generation. This is when it hit me that the loving references to Silver-Age Pulp Heroes like Doc Savage, Buck Rogers, Soloman Kane, and Dick Tracy were unknown to younger generations. Admittedly many of these heroes were before my time as well and were it not for my love of the genre I might not have caught them either. There WAS a unifying theme to Lemuria but it was going unnoticed.
Naitvalis
This is why I try my best to chronicle the pop culture references that I’ve caught. These lists are a resource for those interested in the inspirations used by the development team. If you’ve found a reference that I’ve missed let me know.
Wizard101 wallpaper is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
pulp heroes By Naitvalis is borrowed from their DeviantArt page.
They are being used in a way that qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 