Warners and DC has a lot riding on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. While it is the last official film in the current DC movie universe, it is also a sequel to the biggest DCEU movie ever. (Believe it or not, the first Aquaman grossed over $1 billion worldwide, way more than Man of Steel, Justice League, or Batman v Superman.) DC is on a cold streak at the box office lately between Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle. They could use a hit.
They may very well have one, but the process of making the movie, at least according to a new report in Variety, was not exactly a smooth one. They detail a variety of alleged behind-the-scenes issues, primarily between the film’s stars, Jason Momoa and Amber Heard, and they detail notes of Heard’s that recently were made public after they surfaced in the recent defamation trial between Hard and her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.
One these notes, for example, reads: “Jason [Momoa] said he wanted me fired … Jason drunk — late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the rings too.” (While Momoa declined to comment on Variety’s story, it does quote a rep from DC who said “Jason Momoa conducted himself in a professional manner at all times on the set of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” An unnamed source said he “doesn’t show up drunk to set” and claimed he wasn’t purposefully dressing like Depp he simply “has always dressed in that bohemian style.”
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The article also claims that Heard was almost fired off the sequel before it began shooting “due to her lack of chemistry with Momoa” in the first film, where he played Aquaman and she played Atlantean princess Mera. A source told Variety that Warner Bros. only changed course and decided to bring Heard back for the second film after “her former boyfriend, Elon Musk, had one of his litigators send a ‘scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down’ if the actress wasn’t brought back.”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to open in theaters on December 20. Let’s hope the movie is as dramatic as these behind-the-scenes stories. You can read the full piece about the making of Aquaman 2 at Variety.
DC Comics That Can’t Become DC Movies
These popular DC Comics titles can never get their own DC movies. (Sorry.)