Amber Heard's character had a big part in the 2018 film "Aquaman."
But in the trailer for the forthcoming "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," her character, Mera, appears only for a few seconds.
The new film finds her reprising her role. As does Jason Momoa, who stars as Arthur Curry, a.k.a. Aquaman. A love story between their characters was featured in the first film. In the sequel, Aquaman reveals that he is now a father.
Heard was locked in a legal battle with her ex-husband, fellow actor Johnny Depp in the summer of 2022.
Depp sued Heard for allegedly defaming him in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." While Depp was not named in the article, he claimed it cost him lucrative acting roles.
Heard filed a countersuit and alleged in testimony that Depp calling her claims of domestic abuse during their marriage a "hoax" resulted in her role in "Aquaman 2" reduced.
"I fought really hard to stay in the film," Heard testified. "I was given a script and was given new versions of the script. They basically took a bunch out of my role."
In an EW interview published this week, James Wan, who directed both the original and the sequel, said the plan for the sequel was always to focus less on the character of Mera and more on the character of Orm, played by Patrick Wilson.
"I always pitched this to everyone from the get-go. The first Aquaman was Arthur and Mera's journey. The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm," Wan said. "So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one is a bromance action-adventure movie. We'll leave it at that."
"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is scheduled to be in theaters December 20. (The film is produced by DC Studios, with like CNN is part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)
