When LaKeith Stanfield boards the train to free Idris Elba, the train company's name on the side of the train is C.A. Boseman, a tribute to Chadwick Aaron Boseman, who sadly passed away in August 2020.

Nat Love, Mary Fields, Rufus Buck, Cherokee Bill, Bill Pickett, Jim Beckworth and Bass Reeves are all real historical figures of the old west.

Nat Love was a real cowboy in the old west, and he wrote an autobiography called The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: A True History of Slavery Days. It was published in 1907.

Bass Reeves was the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi. He was also the inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

This film is built on the little-known fact that one in four of all cowboys were black.