The drama leading up to Jason Momoa’s Aquaman 2‘s release became big headlines and the subject of discourse among fans. A troubled production and the Amber Heard controversy created a lot of chatter and negative press on the internet. It greatly affected people’s interest in the film, and the final product itself wasn’t received very well by critics and audiences.
It is known that the film went through reshoots, which greatly reduced Heard’s role in the film. However, one of the stars of the film has now claimed that changing and reshooting the film was a mistake as the original cut was a much better film.
Jason Momoa and WB Mishandled The Amber Heard Controversy
Dolph Lundgren played King Nereus in both Aquaman films led by Jason Momoa‘s titular character. Lundgren’s character is the father of Amber Heard‘s Mera, and both characters had a more defined role in the first film compared to the second. Lundgren recently spoke about the reduced roles and how the reshoots were to blame for the underwhelming response to the film.
Talking to Movieweb, Lundgren claimed that Momoa and the studio heads got ‘spooked’ after all the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp controversy and eventual court case. They started believing that people would not go to see the film if Heard was involved. Thus, the actor revealed that this caused the movie to undergo reshoots to reduce her role, and it resulted in an inferior product. He said,
“And I guess he got spooked with this Amber Heard situation and the fact that people weren’t gonna see the movie because she’s in it. I always thought that was overrated. I mean, I think when you make a movie, you’ve got to stick to your guns a little bit… So, I personally wish they stuck with the original because I thought it was quite good.”
Unfortunately, the makers pivoted from their original vision of the film just to reduce Heard’s role to avoid negative chatter. The reshoots must have altered and changed many things about the superior original script and resulted in the mess of a film that audiences go to see.
Also read: Jason Momoa’s Aquaman 2 Beats One More DC Movie after Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam
Dolph Lundgren Is Sad That Fans Did Not See The Superior Version of Aquaman 2
Jason Momoa’s Aquaman 2 received mediocre reviews upon release, and fans deemed it a disappointing ending to the pre-James Gunn DCU. Audiences would have gotten to see a better version of the film if it hadn’t undergone reshoots, according to Dolph Lundgren.
Lundgren, who stars as King Nereus in the film, told Comicbook.com that the original cut of the film was a vastly superior version of the film compared to what audiences got to see. He expressed his disappointment in the final product, which was a result of the reshoots, and also felt bad that fans were left with an underwhelming film that didn’t reach their expectations. He said,
“I was just disappointed for the moviegoers, because I thought the original script was great and the original cut — I saw a little bit of it, it was really good, so I didn’t see any reason to start reshooting and reshaping the story, which obviously led to disappointment in the moviegoers and not just me.”
Despite the bad reviews, the film is performing better than all three 2023 DCU films. However, it will still end up as a box office disappointment, and 2023 will remain as DC’s worst year at the movies.
