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.

  • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Neither are good people, but I have never seen so much hatred towards one person on the internet than what was directed towards Amber Heard. Literal child murderers don’t get so much hate. And I think, with so much hate towards the one side, people automatically assume the other must be a wonderful human being.

    And / or it’s just sexism. Reminded me a bit of the hatred towards that one woman in the show Tiger King.

    • wildginger
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, you say that, but in my internet circles all I heard was a poor target and depp was a demonic, twisted abuser who gleefully dragged his ex by the hair through the public mud for having the audacity of trying to escape his abuse.

      They were both demonized. People just picked a horse to back.

      • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I am not talking about anecdotal internet bubbles or your personal friend group but the overall tone online or in social media.

        People like Kevin Spacey, Ezra Miller, etc. did worse and got much less hatred. Even though they were much more famous actors.

        I didn’t even know who Amber Heard was and the vitriol online was so bad I thought she was a serial killer at first lol

        • wildginger
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Half of twitter, specific substantially sized subreddits, the majority of tumblr, and a healthy amount of facebook for some reason, actually. Im hardly friends with websites.

          The “”“overall tone of the internet”“” was just the twitter accounts and subreddits you happened to frequent. Not that theres anything wrong with that, mind. But the vitriol was equally abundant for depp.

          First time Ive ever heard someone say miller is more famous than jack sparrow tho. Pretty sure he became famous for his crime spree. A spree so cut and dry obviously wrongdoing there was literally nothing to get riled up about. Spacey does have the fame, but… again, rape of a minor is pretty cut and dry heinous. You write them off as evil and move on.

          Heard and depp were an argument. It got vitriolic because people picked a wrongdoer and argued with people who “picked wrong” and whipped themselves into frenzies. Kinda cant do that without someone to disagree with.

          • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I don’t use Twitter, I only read the news and used Reddit in the past.

            If the vitriol was equal, how come (just one example) that #JusticeForJohnnyDepp was the trending hashtag on TikTok but not the reverse?

            Why can you find so many memes making fun of Amber Heard but almost no memes making fun of Johnny Depp?

            Why do people still make jokes about Amber Heard in topics having nothing to do with celebrities, even here on Lemmy, but not about Johnny Depp?

            Why did you have people dressed up as turds(!) during the hearing, screaming their support for Johnny Depp in front of the court building?

            Shall I go on? To claim the hatred for these two people was equal is ridiculous.

            • wildginger
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Have you ever heard the term “confirmation bias?”

              You should look into it. I think you would find it fascinating, and oddly compelling about your experience.