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Jan. 19, 2024
Actor Dolph Lundgren ‘Disappointed’ over Axed Original Film
In an interview, Aquaman 2 star Dolph Lundgren mentioned they had a “really good” original cut of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, however it is not the final version that fans watched when the DC sequel debuted in theatres during Christmas. By: Dylan Low
At the moment, the sequel has garnered $109 million at the domestic box office and $375 million worldwide, a stark difference from the $1 billion the first Aquaman movie surpassed to become the highest-grossing DC Universe film.
Lundgren portrays the role of Nereus, the king of the Atlantean tribe of Xebel who also is the father of Aquaman’s romantic interest Mera (Amber Heard). Mera’s role was significantly reduced for the sequel, which Lundgren stated also resulted in him losing screen time since his character is highly associated with hers.
“I just realised that it was some kind of corporate decision that they try to limit Amber Heard and then I’m playing her dad and went along with it,” Lundgren detailed. “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.”
Heard
mentioned in court during her 2022 defamation trial against Johnny Depp that
Warner Bros. “didn’t want to include me” in the Aquaman sequel due to
the fallout from her divorce from Depp. She claimed her screen time in the
sequel was “pared down” and action scenes were “taken away” as a result.
However,
director James Wan highlighted last year that the next instalment was not
intended to focus on Mera and Aquaman like the original first film. Wan
mentioned that Aquaman 2 always spotlighted Aquaman’s relationship to
his evil half-brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson), over his relationship to Mera.
“I always
pitched this to everyone from the get-go,” Wan explained. “The first Aquaman
was Arthur and Mera’s journey. The second movie was always going to be Arthur
and Orm. So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one is
a bromance action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”
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