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Credit: Warner Bros.After her role was reduced in director James Wan’s final DCEU endeavor, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), new details are coming to light about Mera actress Amber Heard as fans continue to learn more about what could’ve been.
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Against the wishes of thousands of moviegoers, divisive actress Amber Heard reprised her role as Mera, Arthur Curry’s (Jason Momoa) wife and the Queen of Atlantis, for the direct sequel to DC Studios’ billion-dollar hit Aquaman (2018), in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Of course, much of the controversy surrounding Heard pertains to her highly-publicized legal battle with her former husband, Johnny Depp, as the 2022 Depp v. Heard case painted the actress in an undeniably lousy light. There have also been numerous reports about the Mera actress’ poor on-set behavior, which supposedly saw her clashing with Wan and Momoa behind the scenes.
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The director of the Aquaman sequel has since come out in defense of his decision to par down Heard’s role in the film after the actress accused him of doing so under malicious intent, explaining, “She wasn’t in my head as I was working on this movie,” adding that he always envisioned the story as a “buddy comedy” highlighting Arthur and Orm’s (Patrick Wilson) relationship.
Now, concept illustrator Darrell Warner is re-sparking much of the controversy surrounding Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom after he posted some scrapped costume designs for Amber Heard’s Mera.
Taking to Instagram, Warner shared images of the aquatic queen donning a much brighter, yellow-hued version of her costume, as well as a gown with what looks to be feathered sleeves and a high collar. He captioned the sketches, “MERA, MERA on the wall, who is the fairest of them all…… Costume concept drawing. Aquaman & the Lost Kingdom:”
Although the costumes Mera donned in the Aquaman sequel seem to have integrated most, if not all, of Warner’s original designs, there are slight differences between his sketches and what was actually featured in the movie. Her gown, for instance, features seaweed sleeves in the final cut of the film and sees the coral headpiece swapped out for her standard crown.
Despite the fact that Mera only had about five minutes of screen time in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, her presence in the film has certainly made a splash — even months after its initial release. And from the sounds of it, Warner Bros. and DC aren’t going to be revisiting the property anytime soon.
At the moment, there are perhaps more questions than answers surrounding James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DCU, which is set to kick off its first wave of new content — “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters” — in 2025 with SUPERMAN. And even though we can expect to see the return of many familiar heroes, it looks like Aquaman won’t be one of them — for the time being, at least.
Whether or not you loved or hated the Jason Momoa-led franchise, and regardless of your opinion on Amber Heard, there’s no denying that the creative team behind Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom certainly knew what they were doing in terms of costume design, and it’s fascinating to see the garments that did — and didn’t — make it into the final cut.
For now, we can only wonder if we would’ve seen more of these elaborate gowns had Mera played more of a vital role in the story.
Do you wish Amber Heard would’ve had a bigger role in the latest Aquaman entry? Let us know in the comments below!