Another day, another story surrounding Amber Heard’s Aquaman 2 status, or alleged lack thereof. Over the weekend, the rumor mill went into overdrive for what felt like the umpteenth time when stories began circulating that said the actress had failed a physical exam, forcing Warner Bros. to exercise the option to release her from her contract.
The speculation only intensified when another rumor began concurrently making the rounds that Emilia Clarke had already been lined up to replace her as Mera, which was derived entirely from an article about the former Game of Thrones star selling her house that was written by someone who had no ties to either Aquaman 2, Warner Bros. or even the movie industry at all.
Looking at the facts, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the recent reports have been wide of the mark. Failing a physical is serious business, and almost cost Tobey Maguire his job on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, but shooting on James Wan’s comic book sequel isn’t scheduled to begin until the summer, so the tests more than likely won’t be getting taken until much closer to the start of production.
Then there’s the desperation on the internet’s part to have her fired, so it was little wonder everyone latched onto unconfirmed gossip and treated it as gospel. In any case, the latest purported update is that the Aquaman 2 creative team are scaling back Heard’s involvement in the project, by trimming down and cutting several of her scenes in the script.
Of course, we won’t find out how much screen time Mera actually gets in Aquaman 2 until the movie hits theaters in December of next year, but this is far from the first time we’ve heard something similar, so there could well be some merit to it.
