Amber Heard Is Barely in ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ 

Warning: This post contains spoilers about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, now in theaters.

Following an unusual degree of controversy, it was confirmed back in 2020, despite rumors to the contrary, that Amber Heard would return in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Indeed, her character, Mera, Arthur Curry's wife and the Queen of Atlantis, is in the movie. But... barely. It's not like she's only on screen for an instant, but even when she is there, she's not really doing anything.

If you are new to this story, we'll back it up. Heard spoke about her role in Aquaman 2 during her ex-husband Johnny Depp's $50 million defamation lawsuit against her in May. During the trial, which was decided largely in Depp's favor, Heard told jurors she had to fight to keep her Aquaman 2 role, which she claimed was pared down because of Depp's accusations that her abuse claims against him were a "hoax."

"I was given a script, then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it," Heard testified. "That depicted my character and another character — without giving any spoilers away — two characters fighting with one another. They basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch."

Walter Hamada, president of DC Films at Warner Bros., also testified in the trial and disputed that her role was reduced due to the drama with Depp. In fact, Hamada denied that Heard's role was minimized at all, maintaining that the film had always been pitched as a "buddy comedy" between Jason Momoa's titular superhero and Patrick Wilson's Orm, the villain from the first film.

However, Hamada did admit that there were discussions of possibly recasting Heard due to an "issue of chemistry" with Momoa. "It was the concerns that were brought up at the wrap of the first movie production, which is the issue of chemistry," he said. "Did the two have chemistry? The chemistry, you know, editorially, they were able to make that relationship work in the first movie, but there was a concern that it took a lot of effort to get there and [they] would be better off recasting [and] finding someone who had a bit more natural chemistry with Jason Momoa."

Then, in October, Variety reported that Warner Bros. decided not to replace Heard because the actress's billionaire ex-boyfriend, Elon Musk, sent the studio a note threatening to go "scorched earth" if the Texas-born star didn't make an appearance in the film.

Heard's relationship with the movie got even stickier when Depp fans paid court fees to release documents from Heard's therapist. The notes, written by hand on a legal pad and entered into evidence during the trial, detailed Heard's frustrations on set. She alleged that Momoa was drunk on set, purposefully dressed like Depp to unsettle her, and demanded she be fired from the role.

So, while Mera is in the movie, knowing what we do about this hullabaloo does lead one to recognize how tangential she is. The opening sequence in the picture, the worst part of the movie that really feels re-edited within an inch of its life, has her just kinda showing up around the house, but not really part of the story. When Arthur Curry gets into an undersea battle, she and Nicole Kidman's Atlanna appear at the last minute to help them out of a jam, and then she disappears again. There's a big conclave moment on an iceberg where she gets a line or two and some other glimpses where her red hair floats around underwater while Aquaman makes decisions, but that's basically it.

As Hamada hinted on the stand, the bulk of the movie, which isn't all that bad, is Momoa's Aquaman and Patrick Wilson's Orm in what's basically a buddy cop movie.

Warner Bros. Discovery's press site does not include one image of Heard either on screen or off for this title, and only Momoa, Wan, Wilson and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II seem to have made appearances at "fan events" in recent weeks. The image up top in this article is from a premiere for the 2018 Aquaman.

Nevertheless, no one at the studio will have to grab fire extinguishers — Musk will not have to burn the place down to save his special friend's honor. She's definitely in there ... a little.