Why Amber Heard’s role was reduced in Aquaman 2

Aquaman 2 – aka Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – finally hits screens this December, and while promoting the movie, director James Wan has explained why Amber Heard’s role was reduced in the superhero sequel.

If you kept up with the rumor mill, Aquaman 2 has been beset by issues. The global shutdown caused problems, understandably, while a change in management at Warner Bros. had repercussions.

There were also expensive reshoots, though director James Wan recently went on the record to say that the size of those changes had been grossly exaggerated.

Then there was the Amber Heard issue. She plays Mera in both movies, though while the character was a major player in the first film, it’s thought that there’s much less of Arthur Curry’s potential love interest in Part 2.

Why Amber Heard’s role was reduced in Aquaman 2

During her well-publicized defamation trial against Johnny Depp, Amber Heard said that Warner Bros. didn’t want to include her in Aquaman 2.

Director James Wan acknowledged her comments in a recent interview, telling Empire (via The Direct): “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!”

That’s consistent with what Wan told Entertainment Weekly last month: “I always pitched this to everyone from the get-go. The first Aquaman was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm. So, the first was a romance-action-adventure movie, the second one is a bromance-action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”

What is Tango & Cash?

For context, Tango & Cash is a 1989 action movie that stars Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell as a pair of mismatched LA cops trying to bring down an evil crime lord, who is played – in somewhat over-the-top fashion – by Hollywood legend Jack Palance.

The film had its own pretty troubled production and was panned by critics, scoring 31% from 48 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But it did fine at the box office, earning just over double its budget.

With Aquaman 2 seeing Arthur Curry forced to team up with his brother Orm to battle Black Manta, Wan is clearly hoping that his actors Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson will capture some of that Stallone-Russell magic.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be released worldwide on December 20, 2023 – you can read more about the sequel here.