When the trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was released on Thursday, social media users noticed that Mera, played by Amber Heard, appears for about two seconds toward the end. This movie is Heard’s first acting project since the infamous 2022 defamation trial that thrust her and her ex-husband Johnny Depp into the public eye and subjected Heard, in particular, to intense vitriol online. During the trial, Heard testified that Warner Bros., which owns DC Comics, “didn’t want to include [her]” in Aquaman 2 and that her role had been reduced significantly from the original script. According to Variety, reports began to circulate that Heard only appeared in “about 10 minutes” of the sequel, and the trailer has brought renewed speculation that those rumors might be true.
The new trailer reacquaints viewers with Arthur Curry, a.k.a. Aquaman (Jason Momoa). In this installment, Aquaman and his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) join forces to fight Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who threatens to “kill Aquaman and everything he holds dear.” The sequel, set to arrive in theaters five years after the first movie, has been long anticipated by DC fans following pandemic-related delays. But onlookers who followed the trial have also been curious about Heard’s role given her comments and the ensuing speculation. Many have been picking up on the hints gleaned from the new trailer in comments across social media.
“Wow, a whole 3 seconds of Amber Heard,” one X user commented under DC’s official post with the new trailer. “You guys are cowards.” Another X user wrote, “I didn’t even see her. Must’ve blinked.” On YouTube, the comments are largely positive, with a few stray mentions of Heard (or the lack thereof). “No sign of Amber Heard except for a quick blink and you’ll miss it scene, but that can mean anything,” someone wrote.
All questions about Heard and her involvement in the movie—along with rumors of cameos from Ben Affleck (who played Batman for the DCU) and Michael Keaton (who recently had a role in The Flash) and extensive reshoots—fell on director James Wan. In a Sept. 13 interview with Entertainment Weekly, he addressed the speculation surrounding Heard’s allegedly reduced role. Wan told the publication that the second movie was always supposed to be about Arthur’s relationship with his brother. “The first ‘Aquaman’ was Arthur and Mera’s journey,” Wan told Entertainment Weekly, “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.”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom may be the last movie in this version of the DC Extended Universe as the new co-CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran, set out to revamp the brand with new actors and movies. The two have not explicitly stated where Momoa’s Aquaman falls in their new universe, but Gunn recently stated that the character from their latest release, Blue Beetle, will have a place in the DCU moving forward. It’s still to be seen where Momoa, Heard, and the others stand.
