‘Aquaman 2′ producer says they won’t bow to fan pressure to have Amber Heard removed from movie

• An "Aquaman 2" producer told Deadline they did not react to pressure from fans to fire Amber Heard.
• A petition calling to replace Heard as Mera has received more than 1.8 million signatures.
• When asked about the social-media outcry, Peter Safran said, "You gotta do what's best for the movie."
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Peter Safran, a producer for "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," has said that "fan pressure" had little impact on the decision on whether to keep Amber Heard on the franchise.

"I don't think we're ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure," Safran said on the Deadline Hero Nation podcast. "You gotta do what's best for the movie."

"We felt that if it's James Wan, and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That's really what it was," he continued.

Last year, a petition for the removal of Heard from the "Aquaman" sequel circulated online after her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, was asked to resign from another Warner Bros. franchise, "Fantastic Beasts." Depp said he was asked this after losing his libel case against The Sun over the publication's claim that Depp was a "wife-beater."

The petition, which has accumulated more than 1.8 million signatures, alleged that Heard "systematically crusaded to ruin Depp in Hollywood" and aimed to have Heard receive the same treatment as her ex.

However, during Depp's libel case, it was reported that the actor had written to his sister and producer, Christi Dembrowski, to try and remove Heard from the first "Aquaman" movie.

Safran denied that the social media campaign had any influence on the decision to keep Heard.

"One is not unaware of what is going on in the Twitter-verse, but that doesn't mean you have to react to it or take it as gospel or accede to their wishes," he said. "You have to do what's right for the film, and that's really where we landed on it."

Heard was not removed from the role and in November 2020 said that she was "super excited" to return as Mera in "Aquaman 2."

In November 2020, Heard addressed the protests saying, "Paid rumors and paid campaigns on social media don't dictate [casting decisions] because they have no basis in reality."

Depp and Heard finalized their divorce in 2017. During the divorce proceedings, Heard obtained a restraining order, alleging that Depp had physically abused her. Depp denied this and, in 2020, phone recordings were obtained and released by The Daily Mail in which Heard admitted to "hitting" Depp.

While Depp was officially replaced in "Fantastic Beasts 3" as Gellert Grindelwald by Mads Mikkelsen, he will still receive his full eight-figure salary, according to The Hollywood Reporter.