Jason Momoa is at his most entertaining when his size fails to protect his dignity. We rate his comic timing and willingness to look foolish, though shouting does him fewer favours.
Fi1m perspective
A large man in pink fringe squeals as he loses a fight with a piglin in the Minecraft film (2025). We laughed because Jason Momoa lets Garrett's confidence survive evidence that ought to finish it off. Amanda Neale's fringed leather jacket and tight jeans help, but the performance makes the costume funny: this former arcade champion still likes what he sees in the mirror. In Jared Hess's noisy, overworked film, Momoa understands that his dignity is expendable.
Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones (2011–2012) and the title role in Conan the Barbarian (2011) established him as a warrior; Aquaman (2018) made him a superhero lead. That casting favoured physical force, and the later comic parts have proved a welcome release from it. He is especially good at playing men who think they are splendid, with little concern for anyone else's opinion.
Louis Leterrier gives that vanity room in Fast X (2023), where Momoa's Dante wears lilac silk and makes threats sound like polite enquiries. Sanja Milkovic Hays sets him apart with colour, and Momoa answers with a tilted head and an upward lift at the end of a line. The performance is broad, deliberately so, and we welcome the disruption. The film's scattered story remains a mess; enjoying its villain does not require recommending the whole thing.
In James Wan's Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), he needs a partner more than another threat to the kingdom. Patrick Wilson's fastidious Orm gives Arthur somebody to annoy, and Momoa's disregard for dignity makes their bickering work. David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick supplies decent exchanges; editor Kirk M. Morri gives the actors time to play them. We could have done with more of that buddy comedy, though it cannot rescue the confused action around it.
Supergirl (2026) shows how easily this can go wrong: his Lobo arrives, shouts and leaves, without much reason for being there. The bluster soon becomes tiresome. We would start with his comedy in the Minecraft film, accepting that much of the film is less funny than he is. A director willing to give him a smaller, better-written comedy would have our attention.
Biography
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa is an American actor and filmmaker. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane in the action drama series Baywatch: Hawaii (1999–2001). Subsequent television roles include Ronon Dex in Stargate Atlantis (2005–2009), Khal Drogo in the first two seasons of Game of Thrones (2011–2012), Declan Harp in Frontier (2016–2018) and Baba Voss in See (2019–2022).
Momoa portrayed Arthur Curry / Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe from 2016 to 2023, starring in Aquaman (2018) and its sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), on which he also received a story credit. Other film roles include Duncan Idaho in Dune (2021), Dante in Fast X (2023), Garrett in A Minecraft Movie (2025) and Lobo in Supergirl (2026). He was born on 1 August 1979 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
