‘Aquaman’ Director Didn’t Change Amber Heard’s Role Due to Johnny Depp

Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom director James Wan shut down Amber Heard’s declare that her half within the sequel was diminished attributable to her defamation trial with ex Johnny Depp. 

Wan, 46, defined that Heard’s character of Mera — who’s the paramour of Aquaman (Jason Momoa) –  was not lower out due to her private life however as a result of the film was at all times meant to shift focus to supervillain Orm (Patrick Wilson). 

“I at all times pitched this to everybody from the get-go. The primary Aquaman was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second film was at all times going to be Arthur and Orm,” Wan, who additionally directed 2018’s Aquaman, instructed Leisure Weekly in an interview printed on Wednesday, September 13. “The primary was a romance action-adventure film, the second is a bromance action-adventure film. We’ll go away it at that.”

Heard claimed in Could 2022 that her future with the DC franchise was in jeopardy because of a messy courtroom battle with ex-husband Depp, 60. “They launched me from my contract. And I fought to remain in it, they usually stored me in it. I simply don’t understand how a lot I’m in, really, of the ultimate lower,” she alleged throughout her defamation trial. “I don’t know if I’ll even be within the last lower or how a lot I shall be. It was tough to remain within the film.”

Heard and Depp’s defamation trial was instigated by Depp over a 2018 Washington Publish article written by Heard about her alleged experiences as a home abuse survivor. The decide dominated in favor of Depp in June 2022 and Heard was ordered to pay him $15 million in damages, which was diminished to the quantity of $10.35 million attributable to a Virginia legislation cap on punitive injury Heard, in the meantime, received considered one of her three defamation counterclaims and was awarded $2 million in damages. 

Later that month, studies surfaced that Heard’s position had been utterly lower from the sequel. Heard later launched an announcement dispelling the rumors, telling Us Weekly, “The rumor mill continues because it has from day one — inaccurate, insensitive and barely insane.”

The movie’s trailer — which was solely introduced to CinemaCon viewers members in April — reportedly confirmed that Heard in truth “does have a cameo” within the trailer however “in a battle scene,” in line with Deadline.

Heard’s position just isn’t the one battle that’s precipitated Aquaman 2 to make headlines for the reason that film’s announcement in 2021. After being delayed in tally for COVID-19-related points, The Hollywood Reporter printed an article in July that claimed Wan had overseen three rounds of reshoots attributable to DC’s new inventive director, James Gunn, making adjustments within the Warner Bros. launch slate — and rumors Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck would each make appearances as Batman. 

Wan famous to EW on Wednesday that whereas he doesn’t dispute THR’s claims that Gunn “weighed in” on the Aquaman sequel, the tip product could be very a lot his imaginative and prescient – and reshoots are par for the course. 

“We now have huge actors on this film, and everybody’s schedule is basically onerous,” Wan defined. “So, we needed to break up our capturing schedule into sections. We’ll shoot a bit right here now, as a result of this actor’s accessible, after which we’ll do one other shoot now, as a result of this man’s accessible. Individuals are like, ‘Oh, they’re doing an entire bunch of various shoots!’ No. If we really mixed all of them collectively, it’s really not that many variety of days in any respect.”