The Aquaman 2 trailer confirmed what many feared: Mera is about to take a back seat as evident in the fact that Amber Heard barely appears in the trailer.
Mera, who? That’s the vibe DC fans picked up on immediately with the release of the first official trailer for DC’s upcoming Aquaman sequel.
On Sept. 14, DC debuted the first full-length feature trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom which will be released in theaters on Dec. 20, 2023. The trailer does a perfect job of hyping up the sequel to 2018’s billion-dollar hit, welcoming back Jason Momoa in the title role and teeing up his looming battle with returning foe Black Manta, who has seriously leveled up since we last saw him.
There are many amazing moments to enjoy in the trailer, but there is also one glaring omission: Amber Heard’s Mera.
Within the 2-minute and 46-second spot, Heard’s Mera is basically erased from existence with the character only appearing in one brief blink-and-you-miss-it spot around the 2:24 mark in the trailer. In the 2-second clip of Mera — that’s right, they gave Heard two whole seconds — we see Mera banging on a window to what we can only assume is one of Black Manta’s submarines before the camera quickly cuts away again.
Heard looks stunning in all two seconds of the shot, once again embodying Mera to perfection, but the glaring omission of her character across the larger narrative teased in the trailer is absolutely concerning.
Is Amber Heard in Aquaman 2?
Amber Heard will indeed return for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to reprise her role as Mera; however, it seems her role is going to be significantly smaller in the upcoming sequel to 2018’s breakout hit.
Leading up to the release of the film’s first trailer, rumors swirled that Heard’s role in the movie had been severely decreased with Heard going from a lead role in the first film to a minor character in its sequel.
Many have speculated that Heard’s 2022 legal trial against actor John Depp resulted in Warner Bros. cutting her role in the movie and even considering recasting the role. Heard herself even accused the studio of cutting her role due to her divorce from Depp, claiming the studio “pared down” Mera’s role in the sequel and had “taken away” the character’s action scenes.
During the trial, then President of DC Films Walter Hamada revealed that there had been conversations about recasting the role due to an “issue of chemistry” between Heard and the film’s lead, Jason Momoa. The studio opted not to recast, however, it appears they absolutely cut Mera’s role in the sequel down. After all, you don’t relegate a key player to just 2-seconds of a trailer.
Recently, the film’s director James Wan was asked about the rumors regarding Heard’s reduced role when speaking with Variety. According to Wan, the plan was always to shift the attention to Arthur and Orm’s relationship in the sequel — though the timing and decision to sideline Arthur’s romantic lead definitely seems questionable.
"“I always pitched this to everyone from the get-go,” Wan said. “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 is a bromance action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”"