Only a few weeks remain till Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens nationwide, yet a key cast member has been omitted from a new promo.
In the 2018 movie Aquaman, Amber Heard portrayed Mera, the romantic interest of Jason Momoa's Arthur/Aquaman; however, she was left out of the final cut of the most recent teaser.
Given that the actress only had a few seconds of screen time in the initial teaser, which was released two months ago, this may not come as a surprise for some film fans.
It's uncertain how visible Heard will be until the full film is released, given her highly publicised defamation lawsuit against her ex-husband Johnny Depp garnered a lot of media attention last year.
Is Amber Heard in Aquaman 2?
Starting with a father-son scene, the recently released trailer features Arthur bragging about how "special" his son is and how he will teach him "how awesome" the world is.
This is in line with the family-friendly theme of the first trailer, but Mera isn't mentioned or given any screen time in the second trailer. She only appeared briefly in the first teaser.
Numerous petitions were launched to have Heard removed from Aquaman 2.
Director James Wan disclosed that Heard's Mera will play a smaller part in The Lost Kingdom than she did in the first film in a September interview with EW.
Wan, however, emphasised that the diminished part was not brought about by her recent lawsuit and that he had always intended the second film to have more of a bromance between Orm and Aquaman.
When is Aquaman 2 out?
The release date of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set for December 22, 2023.
Given how successful the first Aquaman film was, grossing $1.152 billion (£918 million) at the box office and cementing Jason Momoa's character Arthur Murry as the most unlikely DCU success story, there are high expectations for the sequel.
