By
Alexandra Heilbron on April 13, 2022 | Leave a Comment

During the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation trial currently underway in Virgina, DC Films President Walter Hamada testified during a deposition that Warner Bros. initially declined Amber Heard‘s option to appear in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom because there were “concerns about her chemistry with star Jason Momoa.”

Both actors have publicly addressed their lack of chemistry while filming the first Aquaman movie.

However, Heard claims the reason for Warner Bros. not initially casting her in the Aquaman sequel was due to her turbulent relationship with ex-husband Johnny Depp, which she refers to as the “Depp taint.” She wrote in a Washington Post op-ed piece in December 2018: “A movie I was attached to recast my role,” adding, “I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me. Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies Justice League and Aquaman.”

Warner Bros. eventually decided to have Heard reprise the role of Mera in the Aquaman sequel, but she wrote that they refused to allow her to “negotiate a fee increase commensurate with co-stars like Momoa, as might be expected on the follow-up to such a runaway hit.”

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp’s role as Gellert Grindelwald was recast in the Fantastic Beasts sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which opens this Friday.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens in theaters on March 17, 2023.

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