With all of the controversy surrounding Amber Heard’s involvement in Aquaman 2, it might be surprising to hear that a new rumor Aquaman 2 will be focusing more on its female cast members. That would include Mera as well as a handful of other female characters that have been rumored to step up into the spotlight for the sequel. One has to assume that would include Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna and possibly another female character that has yet to be revealed.
There are many rumors surrounding Amber Heard and if she will appear in the sequel. Will she, won’t she, and if she is, just how much? What about the possibility of a replacement for her?
AMBER HEARD CONTROVERSY HAS HER AQUAMAN 2 STATUS IN DOUBT
Early on, rumors started to swirl, suggesting that Amber Heard may have already been fired from Aquaman 2 due to the controversy around her (which we outline below). It had never been officially announced, but fans were speculating on who might replace her. One of the leading candidates to be the new Mera in Aquaman 2 was Blake Lively, but that turned out to be wishful thinking.
Another of the leading candidates to be the new Mera in Aquaman 2 was Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke. As time has gone on, this rumor has been gaining more and more traction as the removal of Heard and the shooting of new scenes to include Clarke as Mera is the prevailing thought as to why Warner Bros. moved the release of the sequel back to Christmas Day 2023. Here’s what Emilia Clarke would look like as the new Mera.
We don’t know for sure whether Amber Heard is out of Aquaman 2 or not. Heard has been surrounded by rumors of domestic abuse against her partners for years and the abuse she caused to Johnny Depp has been front and center during their trial. A petition to have her fired from the franchise has been gaining steam online.
“As Amber Heard is a known and proven domestic abuser, Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment should and must remove Heard from their Aquaman 2 film project. They must not ignore the suffering of Heard’s victims, and must not glamorize a domestic abuser. “
– –Petition to remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2
The petition has now topped 1,800,000 signatures and it’s pushing to reach 2 million. Initially, the controversy around Heard did not prompt Warner Brothers to remove her from the film. However, as the outrage over the accusations against her continued to grow, rumors started to swirl suggesting she was about to be fired.
The latest comes from this gossip source where they, along with several other sources, claim Amber Heard is indeed being fired from Aquaman 2. Adding more fuel to the Amber Heard was fired was a report from Cosmic Book News where they claim that Amber Heard is now uninsurable. That means Warner Bros. can’t get an insurance company to cover her, so they can’t use her even if they want to. As a result, they claimed Warner Bros. was buying out her contract, in essence paying her to go away.
Warner Bros. recently signed up Johnny Depp to appear in some of their other movies, so it would be odd of them to take sides with Depp and fire Heard. You’d expect them to play the middle here and just ignore everything. Publicly at least, WB has ignored the cries from people demanding that they fire Heard from Aquaman 2 and, in fact, they seem to have voiced support for her, when the studio used the official Aquaman movie twitter account to do this…
Meanwhile, WB is reportedly considering firing Ezra Miller from The Flash for a similar controversy. They didn’t end up changing their mind on either piece of casting and both are set to star in their respective films.
