Why over 2 mn people signed petition to remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2?

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Image: Amber Heard/Insatgram

Ever since the trial in Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard has started in the courtrooms of Fairfax County in Virginia, a lot of courtroom drama is being unfolded in front of the media and public. All eyes have been on this celebrity trail wherein Heard filed a countersuit of $100 million against Depp. Amidst this, fans of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor have come out in large support for him, flooding social media with posts that are in his favour. At the same time, a petition that was initially started in November 2020 against Heard, seeking her removal from Jason Momoa-starrer Aquaman 2, has gained traction and crossed the mark of two million signatures.

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Amber Heard completed the shooting for the DC sequel of Aquaman in January wherein she plays the love interest of Jason Momoa – Mera. The anger among Johnny Depp fans had been increasing by the day since June 2021, ever since he was removed from Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts 3 while Heard began the filming for the same studio’s Aquaman 2.

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As per the petition filed by a Johnny Depp fan named Jeanne Larson, “Amber Heard has been exposed as a domestic abuser by Johnny Depp.” It further went on to claim that Heard “has systematically crusaded to ruin Depp in Hollywood” since the time they legally ended their marriage in 2017.

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The petition is addressed to Courtney Simmons (SVP of Publicity and Communications for DC Warner Bros ) and Paul McGuire (Corporate Communications, DC Entertainment). Jeanne Larson demanded through her petition that “Amber Heard is a known and proven domestic abuser, Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment should and must remove Heard from their Aquaman 2 film project. They must not ignore the suffering of Heard's victims, and must not glamorize a domestic abuser.”

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Johnny Depp has sued Amber Heard for a $50 million suit in which he alleged that his former wife accused him of domestic violence through a piece that she had written for the Washington Post in 2018. He further claimed that these allegations pressed against him have cost him his career since he was not only removed from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but also from the Fantastic Beasts franchise where he was to return as Gellert Grindelwald in the third instalment.

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Meanwhile, the trial in the defamation is suit is underway. On Wednesday, April 27, the two police officers who had responded to a domestic abuse call made from Amber Heard’s LA penthouse, where she stayed till May 2016, gave their testimony in the court. They told the court that while Heard “refused to give any statement”, no evidence of a crime was found.