Looking over Amber Heard’s filmography, the actress is arguably best known for playing Mera in the DC Extended Universe. So far we’ve seen this version of the character in both versions of Justice League and Aquaman, and she’ll return in 2023’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. However, following rumors that her role in the Aquaman sequel was reduced (along with that she reportedly almost wasn’t asked to come back for the DC movie), Heard said during her testimony in her ongoing legal battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp that she won't be in this next DC movie as much compared to last time.
Amber Heard took the stand today to be cross-examined in the defamation case Johnny Depp has filed against her. In addition to claiming that the poop that she’d allegedly left on Depp’s side of the bed during their time together actually came from one of the couple’s Yorkshire terriers after it came into contact with marijuana, she also talked about how her scenes in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have been trimmed down in the midst of her legal entanglements. In her words, per CNN:
I fought really hard to stay in the film. I was given a script and was given new versions of the script. They basically took a bunch out of my role.
Mera has been a key character in the Aquaman mythos since being introduced in 1963’s Aquaman #11, so after being introduced to the DCEU in Justice League, it was only fitting she serve as the female lead the in the Aquaman movie. But as far as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom goes, Amber Heard has revealed that her role was trimmed down after several rewrites of the script. It’s unclear how much we’ll see of Mera in the finalized version of The Lost Kingdom, although YouTuber Grace Randolph alleged in late April that Heard has “less than 10 minutes of screentime.” Heard also indicated that her role being reduced in the next Aquaman movie came after Johnny Depp’s attorney alleged that her claims that her ex-husband abused her were a “hoax.”
Amber Heard’s comments on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrive shortly after a petition demanding she be removed from the sequel surpassed 4 million signatures. Considering that The Lost Kingdom has already completed principal photography, as well as producer Peter Safran saying in July 2021 that “fan pressure” wouldn’t dictate taking a course of action like that, there’s nothing to suggest that Heard will be cut out of the movie entirely. Warner Bros. Pictures previously recast Johnny Depp in the role of Gellert Grindelwald with Mads Mikkelsen for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore after Depp lost his libel case against The Sun (which had labeled him a “wife beater”). In that instant though, the threequel was still rolling cameras when the studio came to that decision, and Depp had only shot one scene.
Along with Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom’s cast includes Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Kidman, Randall Park Vincent Regan, Indya Moore, Javi Zhao and Pilou Asbæk. The James Wan-directed and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick-written entry in the upcoming DC movies slate will arrive on March 17, 2023.
