Since the play was written, new information has come to light concerning the historical Richard III. Firstly, though he did suffer from scoliosis (curvature of the spine) he was not hunchbacked or otherwise severely misshapen. Likewise the claim that he was born with a full set of teeth has no basis in fact. These were most likely rumors started by the Tudors to demonize the king they overthrew in order to claim the throne which got mixed up with the truth over the years. Historians remain divided as to his character, though it is widely believed that he did not commit murder as wantonly or eagerly as depicted in the play. Again, his political enemies painted him as a villain and that is the image that has survived.
In March 2015, Benedict Cumberbatch gave a reading at the burial of the real Richard III. Cumberbatch was already in production for playing the part of Richard, whose body had been found in 2012 buried under a car park.
Dame Judi Dench, here seen as Cecily the Duchess of York, had played Katherine of Valois, in Part Eight: The Band of Brothers (1960) a televised version of another of William Shakespeare's historical plays: "Henry V". Katherine, queen consort to the English king Henry V, had through a second marriage to the "commoner" Owen Tudor become the ancestress of the Tudor monarchs including Elizabeth I who Dench would play in Shakespeare in Love (1998). In fact, besides playing Elizabeth I onscreen, Dench would onscreen play two of that monarch's great-great-grandmothers: Katherine of Valois and Cecily the Duchess of York.