Thanks to the legal battles between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, we know a lot more about the behind-the-scenes workings of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom than we do for most movies that are still a couple of months from release. One of the biggest pieces of news was Heard claiming that her role in the sequel actually shrank over time. James Wan has explained his reasoning for Mera’s smaller role previously, but admits that this did result in her role shrinking over time.
Jason Momoa and Amber Heard worked together throughout the first Aquaman movie, but her character Mera is largely absent from the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer, and reports are her role in the sequel is much smaller. Director James Wan told Empire (via The Direct) that he had a plan from the outset to make romance a major part of the first film, but not the sequel, which is why Heard’s role was paired down as the script went through revisions. The director explained…
It’s fair that [Heard] said that [about the character being pared down], because she wasn’t in my head as I was working on this movie. Actors don’t necessarily know what we [directors] behind the scenes are thinking about. But this was always my plan. From the start, I pitched that the first film would be a Romancing The Stone-type thing — an action-adventure romantic comedy — while the second would be an outright buddy comedy. I wanted to do Tango & Cash!
During the defamation trials of Depp and Heard it was suggested that there was an issue of chemistry between Momoa and Heard that led to the decision to pair down the role of Hera for the sequel. But according to Wan he was always planning to make a movie that would focus on the characters of Aquaman and Orm, and that meant shrinking the role of Mera to make more room for Patrick Wilson’s Orm.
Certainly, whatever the reason, it’s understandable that Amber Heard could be frustrated, as it sounds like she filmed more scenes for the Aquaman sequel, that ended up on the cutting room floor. One doesn’t imagine any actor likes to see their work disappear. And considering Heard’s situation at the time, and the fact that there were loud corners of social media calling for her removal from Aquaman 2, it would be impossible not to see a connection.
According to James Wan, however, Amber Heard’s statements were accurate, but the reason for them just wasn’t clear to her. It seems the director had a specific idea to make a buddy comedy-style film and hey, who doesn’t want to see a superhero movie inspired by Tango & Cash? That honestly sounds like a film that could be a lot of fun.
