Setting aside the ugly details of the case Amber Heard is embroiled in; let’s get a few points of order out of the way:
- Aquaman wasn’t a movie built on the foundation of great acting, relatively speaking.
- Amber Heard isn’t a particularly gifted performer.
- The character of Mera, as she was written in Aquaman, doesn’t ask much of its actor.
Given those three aspects, if Warner Bros. does indeed decide to pull the trigger and fire Heard, they could realistically replace her with just about anybody, and it wouldn’t make a world of difference.
To put it into context, this would be akin to replacing Terence Howard with Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2 – it’s not shaking the establishment; it’s a minor tremor.
Amber Heard didn’t exactly set the screen alight as Mera. She was serviceable, at best.
Emilia Clarke, who seems to be the Internet’s unanimous pick to take over the part, will certainly bring more likeability to the character, but isn’t well suited to the part otherwise.
But neither was Heard. So if it is more of the same that James Wan and Warner Bros. are after, sure, the likes of Emilia Clarke, Eiza Gonzalez, Blake Lively or Adrianne Palicki will do more than an adequate job.
That is under the assumption that the character of Mera will be more or less how she was written in Aquaman; not particularly strongly.
But, and this is a sizeable ‘but,’ if the writing and characterisation were to be better, and if Mera were to play a more pivotal role in the story alongside Arthur, then I would advocate for one of the following three actresses, each more gifted than the last:
Deborah Ann Woll, Evan Rachel Wood and cue the drumroll, Jessica Chastain.
All three actresses are well suited to essay a more compelling, dominant and mature iteration of Mera.
Personally, I feel Chastain can absolutely nail this part. But then again, I might be biased because there are few parts I think Chastain can’t nail. Boy she’s good.
Ultimately, it’s a simple answer – if it’s more of the same, I think it’s immaterial who replaces Amber Heard; you’re not exactly replacing Meryl Streep, so to speak.
But in an ideal world, if the writing for Mera were to be stronger, then someone like an Evan Rachel Wood or Jessica Chastain could work wonders with the part.
Thanks for reading: Hypothetically, if Amber Heard was no longer Mera, who do you think would replace her as Mera?, Sorry, my English is bad:)