Martin Short questioned whether Selena Gomez would be a 'pop princess nightmare' on 'Only Murders in the Building'

• Martin Short questioned whether Selena Gomez would be a "pop princess nightmare" before they met.
• The "Only Murders in the Building" costars met for the first time on set.
• However, Short said Gomez turned out to be "fabulous."

Martin Short questioned whether his "Only Murder in the Building" costar Selena Gomez would be a "pop princess nightmare" before they met.

While attending Gomez's inaugural Rare Impact Fund Benefit earlier this week, Short told People that Gomez turned out to be the opposite of a nightmare.

"The first day we shot, I had never met Selena. Because of COVID, we'd only Zoomed," Short said. "And I was driving to work and I thought, 'I wonder what Selena's could be like?' I mean, she could be a nightmare. She could be a pop princess nightmare."

The comedian added: "Right away — from the first second we started to the makeup room — it was, like, fabulous. Always on time, always knows her lines. So good, so talented, such a pro — it's fabulous."

The third season of "Only Murders in the Building" finished airing on Hulu earlier this week, and the show has already been renewed for a fourth season.

Short and Gomez's costar Steve Martin, who also cocreated the show, revealed back in 2021 that the cozy murder mystery series was originally intended to star three older men solving crimes.

However, producers eventually decided to write a younger woman into the show — with Gomez landing the part of Mabel.

In 2021, cocreator John Hoffman told the New York Times that they created a younger character so that the main characters wouldn't be too similar.

"Don't we want an alien in their world? The thing that we're not expecting, that doesn't make sense?" Hoffman recalled.

Gomez, 31, told TheWrap earlier this year that she worried that she wouldn't bond with Short, 73, and Martin, 78, before they met.

"I remember when I was leaving LA to go and shoot the first season, I was worried that I'd be a little lonely because I'd be on set and most of the time I would be with Steve and Marty, who I had only met briefly on Zoom," she said. "And the moment I got on set they made me feel included."

Gomez added: "Eventually they kind of just took me under their wing and picked on me and made me laugh and had words of wisdom when I needed them... Some of my best friends are 70-year-olds."