James Wan Gives a Spoiler About Aquaman 2, Reveals the Truth Behind Amber Heard’s Role in the DCU Movie
One of the most anticipated films of the year is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom by DC Studios, starring Jason Momoa and Amber Heard. It is directed by James Wan, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick wrote the screenplay for the 2018 Aquaman sequel.
Following pandemic-related delays and the completion of VFX, the last entry in the DC Extended Universe is slated for a December 20 release in the United States and a December 20 release in the United Kingdom. James Wan recently discussed Amber Heard’s participation in the sequel film.
James Wan clarifies Amber Heard’s remarks about her character being pared down
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director James Wan revealed that Amber Heard, who plays Mera in the movie, opposite Jason Momoa’s Arthur, was never said to have a focus in the sequel movie.
Wan said,
“I always pitched this to everyone from the get-go. The first Aquaman was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm. So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one was a bromance action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”
Amber Heard, during her defamation trial against former partner and actor Johnny Depp, said that her part in the movie sequel was pared down due to the result of the negative publicity that she received as a part of the trial against Johnny Depp. The actress said during her testimony, People reported,
“I was given a script 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. They just removed a bunch out.”
Amber Heard’s agent Jessica Kovacevic had virtually testified that her character’s screen time was reduced due to a lack of chemistry between Momoa and Heard.
Also read: “It was brutal”: Elon Musk Makes a Confession About His Rocky Relationship With Amber Heard
James Wan addressed the re-shoots of Aquaman 2 starring Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson
The director in his conversation with EW clarified the comments made in The Hollywood Reporter that Wan had overseen three rounds of reshoots and the most recent one took place a month before along with being forced to separately film the footage of Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton for a planned appearance by Batman in the movie.
He said,
“The tricky thing early on was not knowing whether ‘Aquaman’ would come out first or come out after [‘The Flash’]. So, we just had to be prepared. At the end of the day, the best thing I would say about this movie is that it is not connected in any way to any of those films. That’s the bottom line.”
On asking if Batman appears in the sequel movie or not, Wan says that he would not like to comment on that but everyone has to wait to see what unfolds in the movie, which is scheduled for a December release. However, the director confirmed that he did direct a small amount of new material after the main shoot and quotes,
“We have big actors in this movie, and everyone’s schedule is really hard. So, we had to break up our shooting schedule into sections. We’ll shoot a bit here now, because this actor’s available, and then we’ll do another shoot now, because this guy’s available. People are like, ‘Oh, they’re doing a whole bunch of different shoots!’ No. If we actually combine them all together, it’s actually not that many number of days at all.”
James Wan notes Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom remains a true adventure tale
James Wan in his conversation also states that he is delighted that Brzeski’s comments that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have echoes of a Ray Harryhausen movie was brought up and states that the movie has remained a true adventure tale.
He mentioned that the feedback he received was the fact that the sequel does not feel like a typical superhero movie but an old-school Ray Harryhausen movie and noted, “That’s the biggest compliment because that’s the spirit that I was going for.”
The movie’s trailer was released on September 14th and the director was asked about the future of the franchise, to which he said that the second movie nicely sets the situation for a probable third movie but only if the audience demands it. He notes,
“If and when there is a third one, there should be these characters growing, because I think we’ve set up certain things in a good place in the second movie that you can definitely draw upon in a third. I don’t have any stories, but increasing the characters is the biggest thing that I think the next Aquaman movie should be about.”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be released in theaters this December 20, 2023.
Source: EW
