Hugh Jackman read some three dozen books on PT Barnum to prepare for the title role.

Rebecca Ferguson's voice was dubbed by Loren Allred. Ferguson had studied music and admitted that she can carry a tune but since Jenny Lind, her character, is considered the best singer in the world, dubbing her voice would be in service of the movie. However, in order to get into the role, Ferguson insisted on singing the song in front of the extras while filming.

Zendaya did all of her own trapeze stunts in the film.

This film was a dream project for Hugh Jackman since 2009.

Barnum's American Museum was so popular that the crowds inside would linger much too long, thereby cutting into profits. To make way for additional paying customers, he posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress." Unaware that "Egress" was another word for "Exit," people followed the signs to what they assumed was a fascinating exhibit, and they ended up going outside.

Many of the costumes used in the ensemble circus scenes at the beginning and end of the film were borrowed from Feld Entertainment, the current owners of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and were used in productions of "The Greatest Show on Earth."

In real life, P.T. Barnum and Tom Thumb met Queen Victoria, but the rest of Barnum's performers did not.

In real life, P.T. Barnum dabbled in several industries before "show business", including the lottery business. In an early apartment scene, various old signs can be seen lying against a corner wall including one that says "Barnham Lottery" in large letters - a nod to his many colorful endeavors prior to becoming the greatest showman.

Sam Humphrey, the 22-year-old Australian actor who plays Tom Thumb in The Greatest Showman is 127cm or 4' 2" in real life. The real Tom Thumb never grew taller than 103cm and was adopted by P.T. Barnum at the age of 4 to join Barnum Circus. Sam Humphrey had to walk on his knees in the movie, to make him look smaller. His real lower legs and feet were digitally edited out of the shots where they would have showed, but mostly he is filmed sitting or standing with his lower legs out of shot.

Hugh Jackman stated that this film was the hardest he prepared for compared to Logan (2017).

Rebecca Ferguson admitted in an interview that she was extremely nervous when she had to perform a song in the film because she had to sing in front of a full audience, plus the entire crew. She commented that it was Hugh Jackman and his encouraging response to her performance that really helped her at the time.

The Greatest Showman (2017) features eleven new songs written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the Academy Award winning lyricists of La La Land (2016). From early on in pre-production on the film, the decision was made to have the musical style to evoke more that of contemporary musical genres like pop and hip hop rather than that of a traditional, classical musical style that would accurately evoke the film's 1800s setting. As Pasek said, "The choice was to express not just the characters' feelings, but also how ahead of his time P.T. Barnum was. He wasn't bound by the world in which he lived; he wanted to create one."

During the scene where Barnum (Hugh Jackman) tries to persuade Carlyle (Zac Efron) to join his circus, Barnum says that Carlyle has a flair for show business. The scene originally ran longer, with Carlyle remarking that he doesn't know what 'show business' means, to which Barnum responds that it is because he just invented it. This line featured prominently in trailer, but was cut from the finished movie.

According to Jackman, the seven year development process was, in part, due to studios unwilling to take a risk on an original musical.

In January 2017, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that their doors were closing forever, due to decreased attendance and protests by animal rights activists. Their last shows were in May 2017.

Among Barnum's "freaks," the film portrays two Asian conjoined twins. These are the real Chang and Eng Bunker, two brothers born in Siam (great modern day Thailand), whose origin was the basis of the term "siamese twins." Chang and Eng retired after their life in Barnum's circus to North Carolina, got married and had eleven children and ten children, respectively. However, they became broke after the American Civil War and went on touring again. They both died on 1874, Chang from a brain blood clot and Eng from heart failure, or shock (the sources differ), merely three hours later.

The Greatest Showman (2017) marks the directorial debut of Michael Gracey, after having spent twenty years as an animator, digital compositor, and visual effects supervisor.

Hugh Jackman and director Michael Gracey met on a commercial shoot. Jackman told Gracey he wanted to make a film with him, and Gracey thought he was joking. Jackman later called him and said he wanted him to direct The Greatest Showman (2017).

At one point, when the circus is struggling, Barnum's girls suggest him to get something "sensational" like a unicorn or a mermaid. In reality, Barnum famously bought and exhibited the "Fiji Mermaid", a monkey carcass sewn to the body of a fish.

Jenny Lind was written with Anne Hathaway in mind.

This is Zac Efron's fifth musical along with the High School Musical trilogy and Hairspray (2007).

James Mangold was brought in by the studio to oversee a week of reshoots and post-production, because the studio were concerned that director Michael Gracey would be overwhelmed by the scale of the production. Mangold was given an executive producer credit as a result.

Hugh Jackman sang a preview of one of the musical numbers on his Hugh Jackman: Broadway to Oz tour.

Rebecca Ferguson, the actress who played Jenny Lind, and the actual Jenny Lind were both born in Stockholm, Sweden.

Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum), Keala Settle (Bearded Woman) and Will Swenson (Barnum's Father) were all in Les Miserables. Jackman played Jean Val Jean in the 2012 Les Miserables movie. Settle and Swenson were both in the 2014 Broadway revival of Les Miserables, portraying Madame Thenardier and Javert, respectively.

Carey Mulligan and Ellen Page were originally considered for the role of Jenny Lind, but director Michael Gracey, instead, wanted Rebecca Ferguson for the role.

This is Hugh Jackman's first musical since Les Misérables (2012).

Ziv Zaifman provides the singing voice for young P.T. Barnum for the song "A Million Dreams". It was Ziv's singing debut in a major motion picture.

Michael Gracey said the movie is similar to West Side Story (1961), Mary Poppins (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965).
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Barnum's wife's family's name is "Hallett." This is pronounced the same way as "Howlett," which was the last name of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character (James "Logan" Howlett) from the X-Men movies.

Zac Efron and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II previously worked on Baywatch (2017). Michelle Williams debuted in Baywatch (1989).

The large arched art nouveau stained glass window that is shown prominently above the entrance to the refurbished American Museum building is a replica of the large window above the main entrance to Flinders Street Railway Station, Melbourne Australia.

The young version of Hugh Jackman's character, P.T. Barnum, in The Greatest Showman is caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed himself. Hugh Jackman's character in Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's children.

This is the second movie for Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams since Deception (2008).
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When Barnum gives Caroline the *wishing machine* and the girls start singing, Barnum looks into the spinning lights, circus animals appear faintly in the lights. This is both to show that he's being inspired and it's also callback to when Phineas and Charity were young and he shined a light on the chandelier casting animal shadows on the walls.

Both Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum) and Shuler Hensley (Lead Protestor) were cast members of the 1999 London West End revival of Oklahoma, as Curly and Jud Fry, respectively. The pair were also cast in Van Helsing as Van Helsing and the Frankenstein Monster, respectively.

Both Hugh Jackman and Zendaya have played characters in films adapted from Marvel comics. Jackman played Wolverine in the X-Men film franchise and Zendaya played Michelle in Spiderman: Homecoming (2017).

Two members of the original Broadway cast of the musical "Barnum" worked on Greatest Showman as background actors: Marianne Tatum played the original Jenny Lind, and Leonard Crofoot was the original Tom Thumb. The musical ran at the St. James Theatre from April 30, 1980 - May 16, 1982. Tatum and Crofoot stayed with the production for the entirety of its run. "Barnum" also starred Jim Dale as P.T. Barnum and Glenn Close as Charity Barnum.

The headline of first newspaper review describes Barnum's show as a "Circus of Humbug". When he's given his top hat before the next show, someone had put a gold crown around the top hat which says "Prince Humbug" or "Prince of Humbug". The words gets mentioned another couple of times in the movie: when introducing Jenny Lind on stage in New York for the first time, Barnum says that people might dismiss the performance as "Barnum Humbug," and when he comes home part way through her tour, he tells his wife that he has come home because he misses her and their girls. She tells him that sounds "like humbug". One of the titles of the real P. T. Barnum's books is "The Humbugs of the World." (1865)

Part of the reason Hugh Jackman's Barnum is so impressed by Rebecca Ferguson's Jenny Lind and so desperate to be her manager is that her singing is such an authentic performance as opposed to the "humbug" or fake shows he has been producing at his circus. Ironically, Ferguson's "real" singing in the film is dubbed by Loren Allred.
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Keala Settle, Eric Anderson, and Will Swenson have all appeared in the Broadway musical Waitress.

Zendaya and Zac Efron have worked with Disney.
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Both Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron have played characters with the name "Logan," with Jackman in the X-Men film franchise and Efron in The Lucky One (2012).

Spoilers
The trivia item below may give away important plot points.
In the song "The Other Side," Hugh Jackman sarcastically retorts a request from Zac Efron for 18% with a suggestion for "nickels on the dime". Toward the end of the movie when Hugh Jackman reveals no bank will loan him money, Zac Efron reveals he has been taking his 10% of receipts out weekly and saving it. They shake hands on a "nickels on the dime" agreement to save the circus.