A petition seeking to have Amber Heard removed from Warner Bros.' Aquaman 2 recently surpassed 1.5 million signatures.
The Change.org petition was created several years ago, in the wake of Heard's messy divorce from Johnny Depp and reports that both actors were physically violent during their tumultuous relationship. The petition is addressed to Courtney Simmons, SVP of Publicity & Communications for DC Warner Bros. and Paul McGuire, Corporate Communications of DC Entertainment.
It read in part, "In his $50 million lawsuit, Johnny Depp describes many incidents of domestic abuse that he suffered at the hands of his (then) wife Amber Heard, including one incident where she punched him twice in the face and another where she shattered his finger with a vodka bottle, and his finger had to be surgically reattached. He will bear the scar from that for the rest of his life."
The author of the petition further explained that Heard "was arrested in 2009 for abusing a former domestic partner, Tasya Van Ree" and alleged that the actor has "systematically crusaded to ruin Depp in Hollywood, repeating multiple accounts of fake incidents in which she had actually abused Johnny Depp, but lied and created false accounts of him being the abuser."
It was reported back in 2019 that Depp had called on Warner Bros. to remove Heard from the first Aquaman film, in which she portrayed superheroine and warrior Mera. However, this didn't come to pass, and Heard recently confirmed she will reprise the role in the upcoming sequel. The petition started trending again -- and currently sits at 1.6 million signatures -- after Depp lost a libel case in early November against The Sun.
Following the ruling on the libel case, which was over a headline that referred to Depp as a "wife beater," Warner Bros. asked the actor to resign from Fantastic Beasts 3. While Depp obliged, the nature of his contract means Warner Bros. still needs to pay the actor's $10 million salary, as he'd already filmed a scene. Depp tried to appeal the case, but Judge Andrew Nicol ruled against him last week. Nicol denied Depp's appeal because he determined it did not have "a reasonable prospect of success." The judge also ruled that the actor must pay an initial £628,000 ($837,437) in legal fees to The Sun.
Directed by James Wan, Aquaman 2 stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Amber Heard as Mera, Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta. The film is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on Dec. 16, 2022.
Source: Change.org