Amber Heard only has 11 lines in Aquaman 2

Her role in Aquaman 2 has been described as feeling 'purely contractual'

Heard reprises her role as Mera opposite Jason Momoa's Aquaman in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but her character has a far smaller role than she did in the first film.

According to Business Insider, the actor only has "11 brief speaking parts" in the film" and is "minimised to a tertiary character with little dialogue."

This is despite the fact that she is now married to Aquaman in the film and has given birth to their baby.

Although Heard appears in some action sequences in the first half hour and the final half hour, her total time on screen comes to "around 15 to 20 minutes."

"Early on, Mera appears ruling Atlantis and carrying out sessions with the council. When Atlantis is attacked, Mera jumps into action to defend her people and gets critically injured by Black Manta," Business Insider reports.

"She's sidelined for the majority of the movie, healing until she returns in the final act to help Aquaman and Orm defeat Black Manta.

"Devoid of any real depth, Heard's entire existence in The Lost Kingdom feels purely contractual to fulfill her three-movie deal with Warner Bros."

Her reduced role in the sequel follows the long and bitter defamation trial against her former husband Johnny Depp in summer 2022, during which there were reports that she would be cut from The Last Kingdom.

Heard testified during the trial that she had been given a "very pared-down version" of her role in Aquaman 2.

Heard claimed her role in The Lost Kingdom had been slashed and that she had to “fight” to stay in the movie as “they didn’t want to include me in the film.”

She added: “I was given a script. 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 spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another. They basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch.”

The film's director James Wan denied these claims, saying during a pre recorded deposition that the intention had always been for Heard to take a backseat in the sequel.

He said: “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. So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one is a bromance action-adventure movie."

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