Elon Musk allegedly came to Amber Heard‘s defense amid talks his former partner would be fired from “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”

Per a new Variety report, the Tesla and X (formerly known as Twitter) owner is reported to have strong-armed Warner Bros. into keeping Heard cast as Mera in DC’s long-delayed “Aquaman” follow-up.

According to Variety, Warner Bros. and “Aquaman” director James Wan sent a letter to Heard’s attorney Karl Austen after the film‘s 2018 release to share the decision that Heard would be dropped from the sequel, citing a lack of chemistry with star Jason Momoa.

However, per Variety, Warner Bros. decided not to fire Heard after her former boyfriend Musk and his attorney sent a “scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down” if Heard was not back in the sequel.

DC Studios could not immediately be reached by IndieWire for comment.

Rumors that Heard would be fired from the “Aquaman” franchise resurfaced amid the defamation trial with Heard and her ex-husband Johnny Depp, with the suit filed in 2019 followed by televised court proceedings in 2022. Heard alleged Depp led a PR “smear campaign” against her, resulting in a “very pared-down version” of her original “Aquaman 2” role.

“I fought to keep my job and the biggest movie opportunity I had to date [with] ‘Justice League’ with the option to [star in] ‘Aquaman.’ I had to fight really hard to stay in ‘Justice League’ because that was the time of the divorce,” Heard said while on the stand. “I was given a script [for ‘Aquaman 2’] and then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it, that depicted my character and another character, without giving any spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another, and they basically took a bunch out of my role.”

Reportedly, Heard appears in only 10 minutes of the sequel. Wan told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year that the sequel was never meant to focus on Heard’s character.

Also during the trial, notes of Heard’s therapy sessions were included in court documents, which Depp fans later paid to access and shared online. Heard claimed while in therapy that “Aquaman” co-star Jason Momoa drunkenly harassed her on set, including, per her point of view, dressing up as Depp.

Heard’s notes read, “Jason said he wanted me fired. Jason drunk — late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the rings too.”

A DC spokesperson told Variety, “Jason Momoa conducted himself in a professional manner at all times on the set of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.'”

An insider who was on the London set in 2021 told Variety, “He isn’t dressing like Johnny Depp. He has always dressed in that bohemian style.”

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is set for a December 20 release date.

      • 1bluepixel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Johnny Depp was a toxic boyfriend and a chronic substance abuser. So was Heard, but the fact she’s a dumpster fire of a human being doesn’t make Depp a saint despite what the internet tried to tell you.

        Just two shitty human beings who made each other miserable.

        • Zorque@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          And a great deal of the internet as well, when they dragged their lovers spat into the public eye.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Depp probably has been shitty a lot, but the evidence suggests she’s far worse, they are not equal as you seem to suggest

        • BeMoreCareful@lemdro.id
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          1 year ago

          I have to admit I didn’t really follow any of the news, but the little I did see I summed up as a couple of assholes.

      • RampageDon@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I was going to ask this. Feel like people hate him because it was a he said she said of who originally was the abuser, unless I missed something. Don’t really follow celebs so it’s possible.

        • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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          1 year ago

          The trial showed they were just both pieces of shit. The argument of if one is “at fault” for the other of that specific divorce doesnt matter to the end that it showed neither are good people.

          Comes with stardom, I guess.

          • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            Neither are good people, but I have never seen so much hatred towards one person on the internet than what was directed towards Amber Heard. Literal child murderers don’t get so much hate. And I think, with so much hate towards the one side, people automatically assume the other must be a wonderful human being.

            And / or it’s just sexism. Reminded me a bit of the hatred towards that one woman in the show Tiger King.

            • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, you say that, but in my internet circles all I heard was a poor target and depp was a demonic, twisted abuser who gleefully dragged his ex by the hair through the public mud for having the audacity of trying to escape his abuse.

              They were both demonized. People just picked a horse to back.

              • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                I am not talking about anecdotal internet bubbles or your personal friend group but the overall tone online or in social media.

                People like Kevin Spacey, Ezra Miller, etc. did worse and got much less hatred. Even though they were much more famous actors.

                I didn’t even know who Amber Heard was and the vitriol online was so bad I thought she was a serial killer at first lol

                • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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                  1 year ago

                  Half of twitter, specific substantially sized subreddits, the majority of tumblr, and a healthy amount of facebook for some reason, actually. Im hardly friends with websites.

                  The “”“overall tone of the internet”“” was just the twitter accounts and subreddits you happened to frequent. Not that theres anything wrong with that, mind. But the vitriol was equally abundant for depp.

                  First time Ive ever heard someone say miller is more famous than jack sparrow tho. Pretty sure he became famous for his crime spree. A spree so cut and dry obviously wrongdoing there was literally nothing to get riled up about. Spacey does have the fame, but… again, rape of a minor is pretty cut and dry heinous. You write them off as evil and move on.

                  Heard and depp were an argument. It got vitriolic because people picked a wrongdoer and argued with people who “picked wrong” and whipped themselves into frenzies. Kinda cant do that without someone to disagree with.

                  • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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                    1 year ago

                    I don’t use Twitter, I only read the news and used Reddit in the past.

                    If the vitriol was equal, how come (just one example) that #JusticeForJohnnyDepp was the trending hashtag on TikTok but not the reverse?

                    Why can you find so many memes making fun of Amber Heard but almost no memes making fun of Johnny Depp?

                    Why do people still make jokes about Amber Heard in topics having nothing to do with celebrities, even here on Lemmy, but not about Johnny Depp?

                    Why did you have people dressed up as turds(!) during the hearing, screaming their support for Johnny Depp in front of the court building?

                    Shall I go on? To claim the hatred for these two people was equal is ridiculous.

          • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You could just admit that you don’t care that he’s a creep, borderline pedo and an abusive jackass. I don’t have to waste my time giving you the facts just so you can ignore them.

            Oh and I forgot to mention he’s an alcoholic and a drug addict, but I’m sure you think those people are trustworthy.

            • Sylver@lemmy.world
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              What the fuck is your problem dude? I asked for some discussion on why a person is shitty, and you go on to be a shitty fucking person to me just for asking you a damn question! Fuck off with your attitude, I just wanted to know what was so wrong with some famous prick I don’t know about.

        • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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          It’s a legitimate question. If you followed the trial, it was pretty clear that Heard lied through her teeth about a large number of things and was working hard to make him look horrible. I don’t follow celebrity stuff much, but other than being gleeful about her downfall, which honestly seems reasonable, I’m not sure what he did.

          • Microw@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            There are tapes of him drunkenly screaming and destroying furniture. There are some other things he admitted to, which I don’t completely recall right now. There are the SMS he sent with fantasies of “burning and drowning” Heard. All in all, the impression I got from that trial wasnt a very favourable character for Depp.

            • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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              Okay, thanks. I didn’t get the impression that he was anything close to a perfect human getting, and I’m not in the vicinity of being a fanboy, but that trial seemed pretty one sided: she being a horrible, abusive, lying sack of shit, and him hating her but not lying or being abusive.

              • ZzyzxRoad@sh.itjust.works
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                If breaking furniture and threatening to burn and drown your girlfriend isn’t abuse, then I must have missed something.

                Or maybe it’s just that abusers always stand up for other abusers and that says it all about the people who defend the guy online. Especially when he’s a complete stranger to them and they’re paying money to get court records so they can talk shit about Amber Heard on his behalf. Not pathetic at all.

                • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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                  Wow, so anyone who doesn’t see Depp in the same light as Heard must be an abuser? That’s quite an overreach.

                  The only evidence I saw of Depp threatening to kill Heard was Hesrd’s testimony. The same testimony that was so full of proven falsehoods.

          • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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            If you did watch the whole trial, not just the Depp PR clips that were disseminated, you could also see how Depp was also an abuser and a creep. But even if heard, who was also abusive had never met Depp, you’d see a whole life of questionable creepiness out of Depp. It’s funny how everyone rips on DiCaprio but Depp is even creepier. His new gf is like 25, he’s a gross old man.

            • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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              I think the old guys constantly dating the younger women is gross, but as long as they’re all adults it’s a legal kind of gross. I didn’t watch any social media coverage of the trial; my wife watched pretty much all of it and summarized it for me in the evenings, sometimes showing me interesting parts. I saw Depp saying some shitty things, but didn’t see him committing purgery or being overly abusive as Heard clearly did/was. I just don’t see them as equivalent.

              • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The texts he sent, detailing how he wanted to rape, murder and dispose of her body were too far for me, and how he asked his friend if he wanted in on it. That’s not a sane man, no matter what she did to him. And if you look through the whole thing, even though she was worse and lost the case, he was also abusive and drunk/high. Both fed off each other’s toxicity till it blew up. He had great PR though, and the backing of the men’s right types, so he got away fairly clean. Just because someone won a court case doesn’t mean he’s a saint or good person.

          • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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            What am I your Google? Besides, it’s likely you know what he does but don’t care. The texts exchanged between him and Paul Bettany were psychotic and inexcusable. But beyond heard, he’s a 60 year old man who dates 20 year olds and has a penchant for manipulation and abuse. He had great PR during the trial though. Two abusive sacks of shit start fighting, and suddenly everyone thinks Depp is excused for his abuse because he plays a pirate good

            • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Hmm, still no sources. You’re the one making the claim, you have to provide the evidence.

              • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Lol dude there’s court transcripts detailing their mutual abuse, and verified texts where he’s asking Paul Bettany to help him rape and kill Amber.

                If you don’t care that he’s an abuser fine, but don’t act like it didn’t happen

    • bazus1@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      could we make it the far side of the moon? It be a huge fuel savings and we’d never have to see them and their “landing” site again.