Who Does Martin Short Play in ‘Aquaman 2?’

The Big Picture

• The finale of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom features a CGI baddie and actors like Martin Short.
• Martin Short plays the role of Kingfish, a gigantic fish who mimcs a Roman Emperor, surrounded by intimidating hammerhead shark bodyguards.
• Despite his brief appearance, Martin Short makes the most of the role and is featured in the closing credits.

Now come on, come all to this tragic affair…wipe off that Aquaman-themed makeup, what’s in is despair. “The End.” has come for the DC Extended Universe, with the send-off to this expansive multimedia franchise coming in the form of the sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. A saga that encompassed everything from Wonder Woman strolling into No Man’s Land and comic accurate Starro to jars of urine and falling CGI babies is now finished. The Lost Kingdom doesn’t necessarily function as a finale to everything that came before it (no DCEU cameos or references to other movies), but some elements of the feature do feel extra humorous when considering this text as a DCEU send-off.

For instance, it’s quite fitting that the finale of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom would eventually boil down to a CGI baddie coated in dim colors, a fixture of this franchise (see: Steppenwolf, Ares, Doomsday). Nobody could’ve imagined that significance when they were writing this movie, but Lost Kingdom ended up encapsulating the weak digital foes that became punchlines in the DCEU. It’s also amusing which actors show up in the swan song for the DCEU, including Saturday Night Live veteran Martin Short. The leading man of Clifford got in just under the wire into this massive superhero franchise…but who did he play in this water bound superhero blockbuster?

There’s Something Fishy About Martin Short in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”

In one of their earliest exploits together, Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and his recently released baddie half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) need information on the location of the nefarious Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Matteen II). To procure that knowledge, they’ll have to travel to the Sunken Citadel, an underwater realm full of baddies, pirates, thieves, and other unsavory characters. Orm is familiar with this place (hey, he was the villain of the first Aquaman after all!) but Aquaman is a lot more resistant to the idea. Still, the duo has no choice but to work together and get inside this shady locale. Upon immediately entering this place, the Sunken Citadel establishes itself as being an aquatic equivalent to Jabba’s Palace from Return of the Jedi, complete with stylized creatures breaking out in song as live entertainers.

Who is the Jabba of this location? Why, that would be Kingfish, a gigantic fish who behaves a bit like a classical Roman Emperor with his extravagant surroundings and lady servants attending to his every whim. Once he starts speaking, it’s clear that this is Martin Short’s role in the movie, with the actor putting on his smarmiest and cockiest voice to bring Kingfish to life. The incredibly confident Kingfish is surrounded by hammerhead shark bodyguards that look intimidating enough to be a legitimate threat to Aquaman. Thus, Kingfish is initially dubious of helping out this superhero…until Aquaman breaks free of the shackles and, with help from Orm, subdues those guards.

Grabbing a nearby oxygen tank and helmet, Aquaman grabs Kingfish, places the helmet on his head, and proceeds to fill it up with oxygen that will prove deadly for this critter. At this point. Kingfish’s vocals take on an extra frantic quality that Short plays like a fiddle, he’s well-versed in doing voice work for characters that are constantly in the middle of an anxiety attack. Eventually, just before his fate is sealed, Kingfish divulges where Aquaman could possibly maybe find Black Manta. Our hero smashes the glass front of this helmet, thus allowing water to pour into Kingfish’s helmet, and he and Orm proceed to leave the Sunken Citadel behind. Kingfish never returns to the proceedings, nor is the Sunken Citadel referenced again.

With that, Martin Short’s stint in the DCEU is finished, though impressively, he does get a prominent credit in the closing credits. Short is credited alongside the film’s main cast complete with a state of Kingfish accompanying his name and is even the second-to-last name highlighted in the credits in a solo fashion, before the legendary Nicole Kidman! Typically in live-action blockbusters, actors who solely provide voice-over work get relegated to more obscure places in the end credits, so it’s a testament to Short’s enduring fame that he managed to get credited alongside Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s live-action performers.

What Else Is Noteworthy About Martin Short’s “Aquaman” Role?

Despite Kingfish being on-screen for only minutes, Martin Short’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom role still offers up plenty of weird trivia details to talk about. For one thing, it’s interesting that Short’s presence in the film never leaked or got announced before this feature hit theaters. Compare this total surprise appearance to the endless speculation that surrounded tiny DCEU supporting roles inhabited by actors like Scoot McNairy and Ike Barinholtz in the past. Perhaps somebody in the Warner Bros. publicity department just didn’t want to deal with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom getting attached to endless clickbait pieces speculating whether Martin Short was playing The Fisherman!

Meanwhile, Short’s presence in the cast alone is intriguing since one-scene characters like these are often a prime spot for superhero movie directors to place actors they like working with. Just look at the various Bruce Campbell characters in the Sam Raimi Marvel movies or Nathan Fillion’s voice-work in the original Guardians of the Galaxy. By contrast, Short doesn’t have much of a connection (if any) to prior works directed and produced by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom helmer James Wan. However, tackling Kingfish does fit in with Short’s penchant for providing voicework in major Hollywood movies, while he also previously provided a vocal turn as a CGI character in a live-action blockbuster in The Spiderwick Chronicles. Short’s career highlights made him an obvious choice to play Kingfish!

As for the character himself, he is, for all intents and purposes, a completely original character in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. There is a character from the Aquaman comics named King Fish, but his name is two words, not one, and he appears to be an entirely different character in personality and appearance. Kingfish is a rare foray into totally original characters for the DCEU, which often embrace even obscure pre-established comic book names to fill out the supporting casts of their various movies. It’s not unprecedented for new people to show up in these movies (as seen by the Daughters of Atlas in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, who have roots in mythology but not the comics), but it is increasingly rare. Kingfish marks the last major original character to be introduced into the DC Extended Universe.

Normally, this is where one would dive into how Kingfish would potentially factor into future Aquaman adventures, but it’s doubtful such enterprises will come to fruition anytime soon. Momoa has been open about how his future as the character is looking murky and James Gunn’s full reboot of the DC movies is imminent. Kingfish almost certainly won’t be coming back for further big-screen exploits, making Martin Short’s big superhero movie appearance a one-and-done. It’s just another awkward way Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom wraps up the DC Extended Universe by telling audiences “gather ’round, piggies, and kiss this goodbye…I’d encourage your smiles, I’ll expect you won’t cry.”

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is currently showing in theaters in the U.S

Buy Tickets on Fandango