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- Selene's name comes from the Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē), meaning "shining", or "luminous". According the novelizations, Selene is named for Selene, the ancient Greek goddess of the Moon. Selene's role as a Death Dealer, an immortal huntress who hunts and kills Werewolves/Lycanthropes at night, also mirrors another Ancient Greek Moon Goddess, Artemis, who was also a goddess of the hunt, who stalks her prey by the moonlight.
- Like Amelia and Sonja, Selene's great physical beauty has been noted upon repeatedly in the novelizations, as all have been compared to "Grecian Goddesses". It's made evident that many men were drawn to Selene's beautiful appearance, as, according to the novelizations, Selene has had sexual intercourse with many men long before meeting Michael, but she did so out of boredom rather than actually loving them or feeling aroused by their presence.
- Selene is loosely based on the villainess Selene Gallio in the X-Men comics.
- According to series creators Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, and Danny McBride, the love story between Selene and Michael is based off of the romance seen in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "Romeo and Juliet for Vampires and Werewolves".
- Selene is nicknamed "The Vampire Juliet"
- The love story between Michael and Selene also mirrors the myth of Selene and Endymion: Selene, an Ancient Greek Lunar Goddess, who sights the mortal Endymion, and falls in love with him. She would later make him immortal and takes him as her lover, and in due time bore him around fifty daughters.
- A number of designs for Selene's outfit were rejected because they would have made her look too much like a dominatrix.
- Selene confesses her love for Michael aloud for the first time on screen in Underworld: Awakening.
- Promotional materials for the first movie put Selene's age at 121 years in Underworld, though that was later changed to 620 in Evolution, with her final age being around 632 in Awakening. In the Evolution novelization, it is mentioned that Selene had been around for "thirty-five generations of mortal humanity" before she saw the sun again. The first novelization was written with these materials from the first film, mentioning that all Selene has left of her family is a photograph she keeps in a frame in a "position of honor" on her desk, something that would have been impossible if she had been originally meant to be six centuries old.
- Selene's use of the oath "Praise the Saints", in her internal dialogue in the prologue of the novelization of Evolution reveals that prior to her family's death and her becoming a Vampire, Selene and her family were Roman Catholic.
- The role of Selene was written with English actress Kate Beckinsale in mind right from the beginning.
- Viktor’s deceased daughter Sonja is seen to having strikingly similar characteristics to that of Selene, both in physical attributes and personality traits. This is because she was purposefully based heavily on Selene by the writers. Sonja's manner of dress is also copied from Selene.
- Selene is the only Vampiric character in the Underworld franchise that has been seen to infect another individual with Vampirism by biting him, or feeding off blood from a living human.
- Selene's finishing moves in killing the antagonists of each Underworld film all involve turning the opponents' weapons, strength or abilities against them. She kills Viktor with his own sword, stabs Marcus's skull with his wing talon, and blows Quint Lane up by placing a silver nitrate bomb inside of him, which sealed itself within him by his own advanced healing factor.
- The child version of Selene is played by Lily Sheen, the daughter of Kate Beckinsale, Selene's adult actress. Lily's father is Michael Sheen, the actor who plays Lucian, although he and Beckinsale split in 2003 due to Beckinsale's relationship with director Len Wiseman, who she met during the making of Underworld. Beckinsale later married Wiseman.
- The official website for Awakening refers to Selene as "The Original Death Dealer". This may be a reference to her being the first Death Dealer to appear in the series, or it may be a goof, as the original group of Death Dealers were created hundreds of years before Selene's birth.
- By the end of Underworld: Awakening, Selene has demonstrated all powers and abilities equal, if not superior to, the Vampire Elders.
- Selene's ability to walk in daylight is shown to not be well known. In Awakening the Antigen Headquarters guards were shocked by Selene's appearance in daylight despite Antigen having experimented upon Selene for twelve years. Similarly, in Blood Wars, Semira was shocked that Selene and David could "daywalk" despite being aware of Selene's incredible abilities, including her resurrection of David.
- In Blood Wars, it's shown that Selene's resurrection of David is unique and remarkable.
- Selene is the only Vampire-Corvinus Strain Hybrid to exhibit the white/platinum hybrid eye color. Strangely, this feature was only showed in Evolution. In the sequel, Awakening, she only exhibit her regular Vampire-electric blue eyes, while in Blood Wars, her eyes glow blue when she is in pain or stressed.
- Despite being a Vampire, and the main character of the Underworld franchise, Selene was never seen hissing, shrieking or growling like others Vampires usually do, through the series.
- In 2004, just one year after her famous portrayal of Selene for the first time, Kate Beckinsale starred in the American horror film Van Helsing as Anna Valerious, a Vampire Huntress with a strong grudge against Dracula and who aids the titular hero Van Helsing in destroying him and his brides.
- Many fans have jokingly suggested that Selene may in fact be a descendent to Anna or even a possible reincarnation.
- Beckinsale stated that she wouldn't return in the sixth movie because she said she's done enough.