Petition to Remove Amber Heard From Aquaman 2 Crosses 3 Million Signatures

The petition to have Amber Heard removed from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has officially crossed the 3 million signature mark. That's quite a jump from just four days prior (April 28th) when we reported that the petition to remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2 had crossed 2 million signatures. Amber Heard has had a growing target on her in the court of public opinion, as her legal battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp continues to unfold (often quite grossly) in the public eye. 

As the legal matters play out, the trial has also been fuel for an entire trending wave of social media and online buzz – including this petition to have Heard removed from Aquaman 2. The trial between Heard and Depp has revealed some damning facts about how both stars behave behind closed doors, but Heard's exploits (fair or not) seem to be making a bigger mark on the zeitgeist. As is now the custom of modern Cancel Culture, there are those who want to see Heard pay a similar price with her career options as Depp did. Disney and Warner Bros. both severed ties with Depp on Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts, after Heard posted a Washington Post op-ed about an alleged abusive relationship with an "unnamed" partner. That op-ed led to more tabloid reports, culminating in Depp failing to win a libel case against UK's The Sun, which had reported on over a dozen claims of abuse that Depp allegedly committed toward Heard. Depp has been rallying his legal case ever since, resulting in the new trial now unfolding. 

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was delayed from its late 2022 release date until the Spring of 2023; some fans may think that allows an opportunity for Amber Heard to somehow be switched out of the movie – but not so. Aquaman 2 wrapped filming already and as director James Wan explained, it's the extensive and revolutionary underwater visual effects work that are simply taking time to polish: 

"Working nonstop, day and night (at least 15 hours each day), on my director's cut from my home set up. Thank god for the big desk," Wan wrote in a post. "For a movie that is nearly all visual effects, I'm thankful for the extra time needed to craft this thing right. Working with groundbreaking new technology, I'm blown away by some of the early tests coming in. I'm cautiously optimistic and excited and can't wait to share when the time is ready."

"With this film, we were able to embrace new technology that we have where we literally captured and — it's not motion control, it's not face capturing, it's literally putting like 100 cameras on the action to capture the performances, and then taking what they do and then applying that to 3D versions of themselves, but their performance drives this 3D character," Wan added during CinemaCon2022. "It is [more versatile], and it's less painful for the actors, which makes it easier for me as well because they're not screaming and yelling at me (laughs)."

READ MORE: Aquaman 2 CinemaCon Footage Description 

Ironically, Amber Heard being in Aquaman is something Johnny Depp used as legal defense! The actor claimed that Heard getting cast in the billion-dollar DC franchise was proof he wasn't forcibly holding back her career, as he's been accused of. 

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be in theaters on March 17, 2023