Petition to Remove Amber Heard from 'Aquaman' Sequel Nears 4.5 Million Signatures Amid Johnny Depp Trial (UPDATE)

The petition, aimed at DC and Warner Bros., was launched in 2020 and has seen an increase in interest amid Johnny Depp’s defamation case against Amber Heard

Amber Heard in court on May 2
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Photo by STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Amber Heard in court on May 2

UPDATED 6/1, 10:55 a.m.: The Change.org petition calling for Amber Heard’s removal from the DC sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom—which passed 3 million signatures just a month ago—will soon hit its goal of 4.5 million signees. As of this update, 4,431,347 people have shown their support.

“At 4,500,000 signatures, this petition becomes one of the top signed on Change.org!” the page says below the counter. The petition was launched in early 2020, meaning those first 3 million signatures came over a course of more than two years, while nearly 1.5 million have gotten onboard as the Heard/Depp defamation trial has dominated headlines in recent weeks.

See original story below.

Over 3 million people have signed a petition calling for the removal of Amber Heard from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, People reports.

The petition aimed at DC and Warner Bros. was launched in 2020 and has seen an increase in interest amid Johnny Depp’s defamation case against the actress over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, in which she claimed she said she was a victim of domestic abuse. While Depp was not mentioned by name in the article, he claims it did damage to his career and is now seeking $50 million from his ex-wife. 

Heard, who is set to reprise the role of Mera in the film’s sequel, has “systematically crusaded to ruin Depp in Hollywood, repeating multiple accounts of fake incidents in which she had actually abused Johnny Depp, but lied and created false accounts of him being the abuser,” per the petition. During the trial, Heard has been accused of cutting Depp’s finger with a glass bottle. She, too, has accused Depp of violence, as well as sexual assault, which his team has denied. 

“You will hear in the most graphic and horrifying terms about the [sexual] violence that she suffered,” her attorney, Ben Rottenborn, said at the beginning of the case. “You’ll hear that straight from her.”

Heard is expected to take the stand in court on Wednesday. On Monday, Depp’s agent, Jack Whigham, testified that Heard’s op-ed did “catastrophic” damage to the actor’s career, and that he was expected to have earned $22.5 million if he starred in the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film. Disney, however, opted to go in a “different direction,” Whigham claims. 

“It was a first-person account coming from the victim,” the agent said of Heard’s allegations. “It became a death-knell catastrophic thing for Mr. Depp in the Hollywood community.”

The next Aquaman film is set to be released on March 17, 2023, and will feature direction from James Wan, with Heard reprising her role alongside Jason Momoa.

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