Elon Musk threatened to burn Warner Bros. down after Amber Heard was fired from Aquaman 2
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past two years, you will most likely have heard about Amber Heard and her televised and heavily covered defamation trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp in 2022. The trial ran from 11 April 2022 to 1 June 2022 and saw a lot of high-profile celebrities taking sides, including singer Doja Cat and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Depp largely prevailed against Heard after launching what a lot may call a public smear campaign against her. Men, right? The actor was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive ones, whereas Heard was only awarded $2 million in compensation.
However, the two reached an agreement in December, in which Heard agreed to pay $1 million to the Pirates of the Caribbean star to settle the suit. Nevertheless, the effects of the trial have continued to haunt Heard—with the celeb even taking off to a remote location in Europe to seek some refuge.
In her testimony, Heard had stated that her professional relationships with Warner Bros., the studio behind Aquaman, suffered after the trial: “I fought really hard to stay in the movie—they didn’t want to include me in the film.”
Depp’s fans also paid the court to release documents from Heard’s therapist, Doctor Dawn Hughes. The notes, which were part of the trial, detail a hostile Aquaman set. They describe one instance where a drunk Jason Momoa allegedly dressed like Depp and pushed to have Heard axed from her role as his love interest Mera. “Jason said he wanted me fired,” the notes read. It continued: “Jason drunk—late on set. Dressing like Johnny. Has all the rings too.”
As if all of this situation wasn’t crazy and awkward enough, Heard’s then-boyfriend Musk decided to insert himself. Yikes.
It was alleged that a letter was sent to Heard’s attorney Karl Austen. It detailed the decision to have her booted from the movie, due to a ‘lack of chemistry’ with Momoa. Further, it was noted that Momoa had no part in the decision to fire her.
Enter Musk. According to a report by Variety, Musk had his lawyer write a “scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros., threatening to burn the house down” if the actress wasn’t brought back for the sequel.The studio then decided to back down, saving Heard’s role in the superhero flick.
“Elon loves fire, and sometimes it burns him,” Amber Heard told Walter Isaacson, who recently released an Elon Musk biography. Apparently, she meant that more literally then we thought. Some netizens have circulated conspiracy theories that Musk might even be the father of Heard’s young child.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set to be released on 20 December 2023.
