‘She wasn’t in my head as I was working on this movie’: ‘Aquaman 2’ director admits Amber Heard’s role was always going to be minimized

Unsealed court documents and testimony made in court outlined that Amber Heard was concerned the impact of her legal battles opposite Johnny Depp would severely affect her contributions to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but that was only part of the story.

The actress revealed that she was under the impression both director James Wan and star Jason Momoa wanted her fired, and while the latter has yet to comment on the most recent bombshells, the former dismissed the rumors by claiming that the truth doesn’t reflect the distorted reality being perpetuated.

Either way, it’s obvious that Heard’s Mera won’t be anywhere near as big a presence in the sequel as she was first time out, with Wan admitting to Empire that he was never planning on maintaining her status as the erstwhile co-lead of the follow-up to the highest-grossing DC Comics adaptation in history.

“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!”

Instead, Wan has been repeatedly stating Patrick Wilson’s Orm will be stepping into that void to create a brand new buddy cop-style dynamic with Momoa’s Arthur Curry, a narrative decision that was always going to leave Heard sidelined regardless of whether or not it was done intentionally, spitefully, or anything in between.