Having barely set foot on a film set since wrapping production on the first installment over half a decade ago, Amber Heard is returning to theaters with not just Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom before the end of the year, but supernatural mystery thriller In the Fire, too.
What makes it even more novel is that if you can believe it, the latter marks the first occasion since 2018 where one of her features hasn’t been delayed for at least two years, become the subject of a lawsuit, or both. The fact it keeps happening to the same person is bad enough, never mind the media maelstrom the actress has found herself engulfed by in the interim.
The forgotten London Fields was released five years after principal photography occurred in 2013, with director Matthew Cullen ultimately suing the producers, who then countersued him response. Then there was Gully, which premiered in April of 2019 but didn’t release until June of 2021, and we can’t overlook the fact that her return – as brief as it may be – as the DCEU’s Mera is also arriving two years behind schedule.
In the case of In the Fire, though, things went off largely without a hitch other than the inevitable fact additional security needed to be hired for its world premiere earlier this year, even if the extra bodies were happy to accept selfies as an adequate substitute for their time and effort.
It’s weird that it would keep happening, but at long last Heard has avoided legal issues and lengthy delays to deliver a project on schedule.