More than 4,000,000 people have now signed the petition calling for Amber Heard's removal from the upcoming Aquaman sequel.
The Change.org petition was originally created by Jeanne Larson in the fall of 2020, after Johnny Depp announced that he was asked by Warner Bros to resign from the role of Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
In an Instagram post, the 58-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star revealed that he was asked by Warner Bros to resign from the Harry Potter spin-off movies following headlines surrounding his arduous separation from Heard and his subsequent libel case against The Sun.
Per CNN, Depp had attempted to sue the British tabloid and executive editor Dan Wootton after an article was published featuring the headline: "GONE POTTY: How can JK Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?"
The actor went on to lose the libel case, with BBC News reporting that the judge conducting the trial ruled that The Sun had published the article containing information that was "substantially true".
Now, due to the attention both Heard and Depp are receiving as a result of their ongoing defamation trial, Larson's petition has received renewed attention.
Titled 'Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2', the petition is addressed to DC Entertainment and Warner Bros and states in its description: "Amber Heard has been exposed as a domestic abuser by Johnny Depp.
"In his $50 million lawsuit, Johnny Depp describes many incidents of domestic abuse that he suffered at the hands of his (then) wife Amber Heard, including one incident where she punched him twice in the face and another where she shattered his finger with a vodka bottle, and his finger had to be surgically reattached. He will bear the scar from that for the rest of his life."
The description concludes: "As 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.
"Men are victims of domestic abuse, just like women. This must be recognized, and action must be taken to prevent a known abuser from being celebrated within the entertainment industry.
"Do the right thing. Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2."
As of this writing, the petition has now surpassed a whopping 4,000,000 signatures - meaning it has amassed a further 1 million signatures in just 10 days.
As you may be aware by now, the Edward Scissorhands star is suing Heard after she referred to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse" in a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post.
Depp has repeatedly denied the allegations that he was physically violent toward his ex-wife.
Per NBC News, Heard is countersuing Depp for $100 million - claiming she was only ever violent against her ex-husband in self-defense or defense of her younger sister.
Heard starred as Mera in the 2018 superhero flick. Her character was the princess of Xebel and the love interest to Jason Momoa's titular Aquaman.
She is set to reprise her role in the upcoming sequel, having already recorded her scenes.
However, despite the ongoing conversation surrounding her involvement in the movie, the sequel's producer, Peter Safran, has previously told the Deadline Hero Nation podcast that the movie's creators were never "going to react" to what he described as "pure fan pressure".
"You gotta do what’s best for the movie," Safran said. "We felt that if it’s James Wan, and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was."
Although, movie critic Grace Randolph recently tweeted that Heard's screentime in the sequel clocks in at under 10 minutes. This claim is yet to be verified.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is currently due to be released in March 2023.
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