During her infamous trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp last year, Amber Heard claimed that her role in Aquaman and the Last Kingdom was reduced significantly compared to the first film and the studio almost did not bring her back to return.
Subsequent reports have confirmed the actress' claims as they also revealed that her character Mera doesn't have a bigger part in the sequel. The trailer that they released last month also hinted at it since she only made a brief appearance in the footage that they showed.
Some fans were starting to wonder whether the actress' controversies in the past few years played a role in her reduced role in the sequel.
Now, the director behind the film has set the record straight once again and clarified why Heard's role was significantly reduced.
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James Wan Defends Amber Heard's Reduced Role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
In an interview with Empire Magazine (via The Direct), director James Wan explained again why Amber Heard's reduced screen time in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
While he understood the actress' frustration, he iterated that the sequel was always meant to be a "buddy comedy" between Arthur Curry and Orm, which is what the first trailer has also suggested.
"It’s fair that [Heard] said that [about the character being pared down], because she wasn’t in my head as I was working on this movie. Actors don’t necessarily know what we [directors] behind the scenes are thinking about. But this was always my plan," Wan said.
"From the start, I pitched that the first film would be a Romancing the Stone-type thing — an action-adventure romantic comedy — while the second would be an outright buddy comedy. I wanted to do Tango & Cash!"
For the past few months, Wan has frequently insisted in various interviews that the sequel is always been planned as an Arthur-Orm adventure instead of the couple which is what the first film was.
We will never know whether Heard's real-life situation contributed to Wan's idea for the sequel to focus on Arthur and Orm instead, but this has been their recurring explanation ever since the actress' reduced screen time was brought up.
For the general audience, it's hard to judge the entire situation since none of us has seen the film in its entirety and we will never know until we see it whether Heard's reduced screen time works in the story's favor or not.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set to release in theaters this December 20.
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