Many fans are banking on Warner Bros. employing some reshoots to get Emilia Clarke into Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. As it stands, the film is slated for a release in March 2023 with much of the cast of the original Aquaman returning. This includes Amber Heard as Mera, the love interest to Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry.
Lately, Heard has been getting a lot of attention in the press, but it’s not because of her involvement in Aquaman 2. She is in the midst of a bitter legal battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp, as both former spouses are suing each other, alleging the other to be a perpetrator of domestic violence. It will be up to a jury to decide if Heard fabricated her claims, as Depp alleges, but the court of public opinion seems to be on Depp’s side, based on audio recordings and other evidence introduced in the trial.
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Feeling that Depp was robbed of his roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts franchises, there have been many of his fans calling for Heard to lose her role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. A popular petition demanding her removal has just surpassed two million signatures thanks to the attention on the case.
Additionally, many fans are again calling for Emilia Clarke to get the role of Mera if Heard ends up getting fired. This fan casting is nothing new, as in years past, there have been similar calls for this to happen along with fan art drawn up depicting Clarke in the role. Many fans want to see this happen as Clarke and Jason Momoa previously co-starred in Game of Thrones where they had great chemistry. That’s worth noting as there have been rumors that Heard was almost recast in that role anyway because of a perceived lack of chemistry with Momoa.
Fans Might Be Too Late With Getting Emilia Clarke in Aquaman 2
The biggest obstacle for fans hoping to see this recasting happen is that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has already wrapped filming. It would require the studio to spend a lot of money in order to reshoot Mera’s scenes, and if Heard must be removed, there’s a good chance that they could even cut the character altogether.
Even so, replacing someone after a movie has been shot is not outside the realm of possibility. One example of this happening was when Zack Snyder had completed filming on his Netflix movie Army of the Dead with comedian Chris D’Elia in a major role. After D’Elia was hit with misconduct allegations, D’Elia was completely edited out of the film with Tig Notaro brought in to shoot new material, digitally adding Notaro into various scenes. Meanwhile, Disney chose to keep Death on the Nile as it was when it was released in February, despite the assault allegations against star Armie Hammer that had gotten him removed from other films.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to be released in movie theaters on March 17, 2023, with or without Amber Heard.
