Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star Amber Heard broke her silence on social media to thank the fans for their support of Mera in the DCEU sequel.
“After all this time, Aquaman 2 made its splash (sorry, it’s too easy),” Heard said in an Instagram post with a behind-the-scenes photo of the star with Mera’s signature red hair. “Thank you to all of my fans for the overwhelming support and love in Mera’s AQ return. Thank you so much.”
Amber Heard’s reduced role in Aquaman 2
Heard’s presence in the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman was clouded in controversy since her 2022 defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp. Petitions for the star’s removal from the movie were rampant throughout that period. During the trial, Heard testified that her role as Mera was paired down as Warner Bros. was reluctant to have her involved in the movie at all.
“I was given a script and then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it,” Heard said. “[The scenes] depicted my character and another character, without giving any spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another. And they basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch out.”
A report from Variety claims that Heard was indeed almost fired from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but that chemistry issues with star Momoa were the studio’s concern, not the trial. Additionally, the report claims that Heard’s ex-boyfriend Elon Musk intervened on her behalf by threatening litigation against WB. While director James Wan sympathized with Heard’s frustrations, he maintains that his plan for the Aquaman sequel was always about the relationship between Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) and his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson).
“It’s fair that [Heard] said that [about the character being pared down], because she wasn’t in my head as I was working on this movie. Actors don’t necessarily know what we [directors] behind the scenes are thinking about. But this was always my plan,” Wan said to Empire Magazine (via The Direct). “From the start, I pitched that the first film would be a ‘Romancing the Stone’-type thing — an action-adventure romantic comedy — while the second would be an outright buddy comedy. I wanted to do ‘Tango & Cash!’”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is now playing in theaters.
