Apparently, Johnny Depp tried to get ex-wife Amber Heard fired from her role as Mera in Aquaman.
The legal battle between the former married couple continues to rage on, though the odds are not in Depp’s favor following the UK libel case that recently went against him. The Pirates of the Caribbean star had attempted to sue British newspaper The Sun for labelling him a “wife beater” in response to Heard’s domestic abuse allegations, but the judge ultimately declared their statement to be “substantially true.”
The Hollywood Reporter has now released an in-depth article which reveals some new details from the case, including a text sent by Depp to producer Christi Dembrowski, who had connections at Warner Bros. “I want her replaced on the WB film,” the message reads. THR says that in the trial, the actor admitted that the film in question was the DC blockbuster Aquaman, in which Heard played the female lead and love interest of Jason Momoa’s titular hero.
Obviously, his attempts to pull some strings were unsuccessful. In fact, the end result was that he was the one who was replaced on a WB film. The actor broke the news last month that he had been let go from the Fantastic Beasts franchise as main villain Gellert Grindelwald and though he’ll still receive his usual fee for the upcoming threequel, this is a huge blow to his career and suggests that future opportunities are going to be thin on the ground.
Meanwhile, Heard has confirmed that she’s set to return as Mera for Aquaman 2. There’s a significant subset of people calling for her to be fired from the DCEU, however, with around 1.5 million folks signing a petition addressed to WB. The actress herself has dismissed the plea as artificially inflated, though, and it’s believed the studio is also paying it no attention. Even so, the fallout of her ugly split from Johnny Depp is not going to go away anytime soon.