Elon Musk allegedly came to Amber Heard‘s defense amid talks his former partner would be fired from “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
Per a new Variety report, the Tesla and X (formerly known as Twitter) owner is reported to have strong-armed Warner Bros. into keeping Heard cast as Mera in DC’s long-delayed “Aquaman” follow-up.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. and “Aquaman” director James Wan sent a letter to Heard’s attorney Karl Austen after the film‘s 2018 release to share the decision that Heard would be dropped from the sequel, citing a lack of chemistry with star Jason Momoa.
However, per Variety, Warner Bros. decided not to fire Heard after her former boyfriend Musk and his attorney sent a “scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down” if Heard was not back in the sequel.
DC Studios could not immediately be reached by IndieWire for comment.
Rumors that Heard would be fired from the “Aquaman” franchise resurfaced amid the defamation trial with Heard and her ex-husband Johnny Depp, with the suit filed in 2019 followed by televised court proceedings in 2022. Heard alleged Depp led a PR “smear campaign” against her, resulting in a “very pared-down version” of her original “Aquaman 2” role.
“I fought to keep my job and the biggest movie opportunity I had to date [with] ‘Justice League’ with the option to [star in] ‘Aquaman.’ I had to fight really hard to stay in ‘Justice League’ because that was the time of the divorce,” Heard said while on the stand. “I was given a script [for ‘Aquaman 2’] and then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it, that depicted my character and another character, without giving any spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another, and they basically took a bunch out of my role.”
Reportedly, Heard appears in only 10 minutes of the sequel. Wan told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year that the sequel was never meant to focus on Heard’s character.
Also during the trial, notes of Heard’s therapy sessions were included in court documents, which Depp fans later paid to access and shared online. Heard claimed while in therapy that “Aquaman” co-star Jason Momoa drunkenly harassed her on set, including, per her point of view, dressing up as Depp.
Heard’s notes read, “Jason said he wanted me fired. Jason drunk — late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the rings too.”
A DC spokesperson told Variety, “Jason Momoa conducted himself in a professional manner at all times on the set of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.'”
An insider who was on the London set in 2021 told Variety, “He isn’t dressing like Johnny Depp. He has always dressed in that bohemian style.”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is set for a December 20 release date.
I think the old guys constantly dating the younger women is gross, but as long as they're all adults it's a legal kind of gross. I didn't watch any social media coverage of the trial; my wife watched pretty much all of it and summarized it for me in the evenings, sometimes showing me interesting parts. I saw Depp saying some shitty things, but didn't see him committing purgery or being overly abusive as Heard clearly did/was. I just don't see them as equivalent.
The texts he sent, detailing how he wanted to rape, murder and dispose of her body were too far for me, and how he asked his friend if he wanted in on it. That's not a sane man, no matter what she did to him. And if you look through the whole thing, even though she was worse and lost the case, he was also abusive and drunk/high. Both fed off each other's toxicity till it blew up. He had great PR though, and the backing of the men's right types, so he got away fairly clean. Just because someone won a court case doesn't mean he's a saint or good person.