Large swathes of the internet have made it abundantly clear that they’d have loved nothing more than for Amber Heard to be dropped from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with the petition calling for her removal racking up over a million signatures.
That obviously didn’t happen, with production having wrapped on James Wan’s superhero sequel in January of this year, although audiences won’t be returning to Atlantis until March 2023 after the movie was delayed as part of Warner Bros. and DC Films’ recent reshuffle.
Not only that, but producer Peter Safran outlined that he didn’t care what Johnny Depp fans had to say on the matter, while you’d expect Heard’s salary would have increased substantially after she played the female lead in the highest-grossing DC adaptation in history.
However, Matthew Belloni of Puck claims to have uncovered information pertaining to a deposition with Walter Hamada that will feature in Heard’s upcoming defamation trial opposite Johnny Depp, revealing that the actress was almost dropped from Aquaman 2 due to her perceived lack of chemistry with Jason Momoa.
It’s amounted to nothing in the end, with Heard holding onto the plum gig of Mera and even making a cameo appearance in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but it can’t be denied that she hardly generates sparks with Momoa’s Arthur Curry.
Ironically, the lack of chemistry between the two stars was singled out as a recurring criticism of the first installment in many quarters, but we’ve got almost a year to wait until we discover if Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has remedied that issue.