Aquaman 2 Star Amber Heard Speaks Out on Pressures of the Sequel Amid Recent DC Flops

After Aquaman became the highest-grossing installment in DC's cinematic universe back in 2018, it was easy to think maybe things were finally starting to turn around for Warner Bros. After disappointing box office for Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad had defied the critics in 2016 to earn almost $750 million globally in a movie filled with characters no one had ever heard of. Wonder Woman was a rousing success both critically and commercially, and while Justice League was a disaster, it was a predictable one, since the film itself had been beset by problems since before the cameras even started to roll.

It would have been hard to guess that with a Dwayne Johnson-fronted Black Adam movie and a Wonder Woman sequel on the horizon -- plus the return of Michael Keaton's Batman in The Flash -- that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom would be riding a losing streak into theaters. Now that it is, star Amber Heard says she can feel the pressure.

"These are very different kinds of projects representing two very different ends of the spectrum in my industry," Heard told Deadline, comparing Aquaman 2 to her latest film, In the Fire. "There's a ton of pressure on these big franchise movies, with millions and millions of dollars at stake, and compromises are part of trying to make it the most successful thing it can be. Then on the other end of the spectrum is a small indie film like In The Fire, a work of art and work of love, with nowhere near the same resources, and so there are compromises there. The best luck you can have as an actor is to be able to balance both. Aquaman, that franchise and the machinery behind it, I'm very honored, honored to be a part of that. And then there are these small passion projects like In The Fire, where I'm proud to have gotten to know the filmmaker and the cast, and we got dirty together, to breathe life into this story. There's something cool about that, and I think success is an actor who is able to have both those things."

Aquaman's release date has hopped around a few times, finally landing in December, which makes it the official closing chapter for the "DC Extended Universe" -- the shared universe of movies that launched with Man of Steel and has been slowly petering out since The Suicide Squad -- the first in a series of movies that called the canon of the previous iterations into question. Following the reality-altering shenanigans of The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has maybe the most confusing timeline of all to deal with. Of course, the first film more or less ignored all that background noise and focused on a story that only really concerned Aquaman and Atlantis. If that works for the sequel, and audiences aren't too turned off by returning to a dying universe, the film could still do well.