It’s been months since the contentious libel case brought by Johnny Depp in the British High Court heard final arguments and we still don’t have a decision. Whatever Mr. Justice Nicol decides will hugely affect the careers of either Depp or his ex-wife Amber Heard and this leaves Warner Bros. in a difficult place, as both actors have major roles in upcoming blockbusters – with Depp playing Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3 and Heard portraying Mera in Aquaman 2.
Now, however, prolific leaker Grace Randolph is claiming that, despite previous rumors to the contrary, both stars are “definitely” going to reprise their roles. This makes sense as well, as the two movies are scheduled to begin shooting in early 2021 and prep work will be already beginning on costumes, dialogue, special effects and so on. That being said, it also seems that Warner Bros. are hedging their bets. After all, if the abuse allegations against Depp are deemed credible or if Heard’s story is found to be unbelievable, they may have to quickly backtrack.
As such, there are apparently plans in place to substantially decrease their roles in the event of a PR nightmare. There’s no suggestion of exactly how they’d go about this, though there’s an interesting aside from Randolph that Aquaman 2 will feature a “new female character.” Perhaps if Heard becomes persona non grata, we’ll see this new character rising to prominence in the plot as Mera’s role is minimized.
In any case, here’s what the tipster shared:
One more ☕️ post for today:#EzraMiller & #JohnnyDepp are definitely in #FantasticBeasts3#AmberHeard is definitely in #Aquaman2
HOWEVER they are shooting so that Depp & Heard’s roles can be decreased if bad press…
Also new female character will be in #Aquaman2#DC #DCEU pic.twitter.com/9l2FbiJq94
— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) October 17, 2020
I’ve been expecting the judgment of the High Court to be in for some time now, though I suppose the judge does have a lot of documents to review before he finishes writing his (no doubt lengthy) judgment. But c’mon dude, we’ve been sitting around for weeks waiting for this thing, can you get a move on so we can stop speculating and start working with some hard facts?
Aquaman 2 is currently set for release on December 16th, 2022.
