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Credit: DC Studios#ReleaseTheSnyderCut, #ReleaseTheAyerCut…the trend of high-profile filmmakers being called upon to release their own director’s cut of films such as Suicide Squad (2016) has taken the internet by storm in recent years, mainly due to the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021). Now, a director from a different corner of the DCEU is being encouraged by fans to release his version of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) following remarks from actor Dolph Lundgren.
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Despite its predecessor, Aquaman (2018), being a surprising billion-dollar hit for DC Studios and Warner Bros., expectations were low for director James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023). On top of audiences’ growing sense of “superhero fatigue,” the movie was reportedly riddled with delays, behind-the-scenes controversy, and drama from the get-go, culminating in poor test screenings that led it to undergo extensive reshoots just months before its holiday release date.
Now that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has officially landed in theaters — bringing in a somewhat unremarkable box office haul of $340 million worldwide — new insights are coming to light about its reportedly grueling production, including the noise surrounding Mera actress Amber Heard. Following her highly-publicized legal battle against her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, Heard slammed DC and Wan for “parring down” her role in the comic book sequel after thousands of fans petitioned for her to be removed. She also accused co-star Momoa of drunkenly harassing her on set, which Warner Bros. denied.
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James Wan has since gone on record to claim that no, it was never his intention to target Heard, explaining that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was always going to be a “buddy comedy” centered around Orm/Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson) and Arthur Curry/Aquaman’s (Jason Momoa) relationship. Still, many believe that Mera’s role in the film was purposefully trimmed down as a result of the Depp v. Heard backlash, including her onscreen father, Dolph Lundgren, who plays King Nereus.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Lundgren opened up about his scenes being cut from the Aquaman sequel and shared his disappointment with fans not getting to see the version of the blockbuster that Wan originally wanted to make, confirming that multiple rounds of reshoots and several edits took place at DC and Warner Bros. prior to its release. He also criticized the “corporate decision” to “limit” Heard’s place in the story, saying he was “disappointed for the moviegoers” for the final product they ended up seeing:
I just realized that it was some kind of corporate decision that they try to limit Amber Heard and then I’m playing with her dad and went along with it. I was just disappointed for the moviegoers, because I thought the original script was great and the original cut, I saw a little bit of it, it was really good.
Lundgren’s comments are particularly intriguing, considering that virtually none of her fellow Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom castmates have spoken out in her defense, aside from DCEU architect Zack Snyder. His claims that there was, in fact, a very different version of the script also seem to contradict Wan’s previous refusal that the movie did not undergo extensive reshoots, adding, “I didn’t see any reason to start reshooting and reshaping the story, which obviously led to disappointment in the moviegoers and not just me.”
This isn’t the first time the King Nereus actor has shared his candid thoughts on the film, telling UPI earlier this month that extensive reshoots changed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s storyline for the worse. He said of its early iterations, “My opinion is that I thought the original script was great. I was a bigger part of it, and Amber Heard was a bigger part of it,” before continuing, “The studio decided, I guess, to just reshoot a bunch of footage to try to rebuild a slightly different storyline. That’s tricky because you can’t reshoot the whole movie.”
Lundgren later added that he was frustrated and “a little disappointed” by his experience filming the superhero flick, which seems to be the general consensus of audiences given that the Aquaman sequel currently sits at a 35% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it’s hard to imagine there being an even worse version of the film out there, as reshoots only took place as a result of its poor test screenings.
With Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom having officially marked the end of the DCEU, Momoa, Wan, and Co. are likely breathing a collective sigh of relief now that they’ve crossed the finish line, so to speak. Momoa has previously suggested that he will not be reprising his role as the titular Atlantean King, and instead, is rumored to be playing Lobo in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DCU. Only time will tell if this next chapter of the comic book franchise will prove to be a much-needed success or if it will suffer the same fate as its predecessor.
Would you like to see James Wan’s cut of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, or is it time for DC to sink the Aquaman franchise once and for all? Let us know in the comments below!