Where Are They Now?

Squid

Salome Squid’s rise to stardom started with a simple ‘swim on’ part in Endless Ocean.

Her grace and looks earned her a more significant part in the sequel Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep, which brought her to the studios’ attention and she subsequently appeared as Marina in Animal Forest e+. As a result of her impressive performance and fans’ consequent love of the character, Squid was contracted to appear in three further installments in the Animal Crossing franchise: Wild World, City Folk and New Leaf.

A starring role as Squid Girl cemented her position as an upcoming actor to watch.

An enormously talented actor, she has carved out a career playing multiple parts and portraying multiple characters: she took on several roles in Squids and its sequel Squids: Wild West and was subsequently snapped up for the dual roles of Callie and Marie in Splatoon and Splatoon 2.

Her career has followed a steadily upward trajectory and she is anticipated to become one of the big names of the Twenty-first Century.

Trivia: Squid was originally slated to take on the starring role in Squid Mom but other commitments meant she couldn’t commit to the grueling schedule that would entail and Squid Mom was re-conceived as Octodad — the rest, as they say, is history.

Octopus

Best known for his role as Ultros/Orthros in Final Fantasy VI, Oliver Octopus’ career followed a tragic downward trajectory from there. A playboy lifestyle, alcohol and substance abuse meant his presence, let alone performance, became unreliable and studios stopped casting him in their projects.

With enormous debts to pay off, he became involved in the ‘adult entertainment’ industry, putting paid to any hope there might have been that a stint in rehab might have the same effect upon his career as upon his mental health — despite a brief attempt to relaunch himself as a serious actor in 2002, he never really recovered from the stigma of being an infamous tentacle-porn performer.

However, there is a happy ending to his story: he did manage to get his life back on track in a different field and is now involved with academic research into mobility solutions (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/can-the-octopus-help-us-to-make-wheelchairs-obsolete)

Trivia: Octopus was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his role as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus’ tentacles, in Sam Rami’s 2002 Spider-Man 2.

Nautilus

Norman Nautilus’ first role in the entertainment industry was uncredited, playing the role of ‘Barrelchest’ in Runescape. After a stint in that role, he was spotted by a talent scout and cast as a ‘Big Daddy’ in Bioshock.

His first credited appearance came, two years later, playing himself in League of Legends. So enamoured were studios of his performances that he was cast in the starring role of ‘Subject Delta’ in Bioshock 2.

Since then he has become something of a recluse, citing the pressures of working on multiple projects simultaneously and the concern that he was being typecast in the role of hulking brute, and has not appeared in any further productions to date.

His agent has, however, hinted at his being approached with regard to playing the aquatic body double for ‘The Thing’ in a Fantastic Four movie yet to be confirmed.

Trivia: Nautilus is a misnomer — he is really a cuttlefish.

Cuttlefish

Craig Cuttlefish first came to public notice with a well received debut in Splatoon.

Rumours arose of a romantic involvement with Agent 3 when the two were spotted vacationing together at the cape after Cuttlefish had completed some magazine photoshoots, but both maintain they are just good friends.

The decision to appear in manga magazines was a questionable one that he put down to contractual obligations struck by his agent without his knowledge, but may have been instrumental in his being dropped from Splatoon 2.

He later returned to the franchise, reprising his role as ‘Cap’n Cuttlefish’ with a cameo appearance in Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion.

Nothing has been confirmed vis à vis his continuing career but there are rumours of talks about a role in a future appearance in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (possibly a remake of PotC 2, a prequel or a spinoff series)

Trivia: Craig Cuttlefish is a stage name — Cuttlefish is really half squid, half devilfish (on his mother’s side).

In all a fine quartet, each a ‘class’ act in their own right and, despite some career lows, anything but ‘ex’ cephalopods yet — never mind where they are now … where will they be next!?