The high-profile defamation trial involving Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star Amber Heard and ex husband Johnny Depp has been dominating headlines for the past week or so, and some spoilery details on the DC Comics sequel have even come to light during testimonies.
Heard actually dropped a pretty major reveal over the weekend (more on that here), and we now have some more info on the actor's reduced role in the movie thanks to industry insider Kathryn Arnold.
It sounds like Warner Bros. really didn't want to bring Heard back for Aquaman 2, but director James Wan and Jason Momoa reportedly fought to keep her in the film, and may have been instrumental in convincing the studio to leave any of her scenes in tact.
“Ms. Heard was not invited to be either in the poster or to be at the [FanDome] event, and, in fact, they told her she cannot come," Arnold claims. "In February 2021, there were conversations that Amber’s, I’m going to be technical with you, her option for employment was not going to be exercised. So they may not have hired her again. Her management team fought very hard and they ultimately ended up hiring her, but not only because of what her management did, but also because star Jason Momoa and director James Wan committed to her.”
One recent insider report claimed that WB execs were concerned that Heard didn't have any chemistry with leading man Momoa (which, to be fair, is not untrue!), but there's a lot of speculation that the extreme fan-backlash that emerged after certain aspects of these court cases were revealed may have contributed to the higher-ups souring on the actress.
Whatever the case may be, we wouldn't be at all surprised if Mera was either killed-off in The Lost Kingdom or the character was recast at some point in the future.