Dolph Lundgren Says Jason Momoa ‘Got Spooked with the Amber Heard Situation’ & Aquaman Is Dead
Summary
- Jason Momoa may be leaving the Aquaman franchise due to concerns over the Amber Heard situation and its impact on the box office.
- Dolph Lundgren believes that sticking with the original script, which included a larger role for himself and Amber Heard, would have been a better choice.
- The Aquaman franchise is likely going to be rebooted with James Gunn’s DCU, and Momoa may be playing the character Lobo instead.
Action movie icon and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star Dolph Lundgren has revealed that Jason Momoa “got spooked” with the “Amber Heard situation,” and believes that the Aquaman franchise is now over. In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Lundgren addressed the future of the Aquaman franchise and says he has heard “through somebody else” that Momoa wants to move on to other things.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Aquaman. I’ve heard Jason Momoa thinks it’s just his last one, and he wants to do something else. I just heard it through somebody else. But it’s hard to know what’s going to happen in the future, except I just thought they had a great script, and they had a great director and good cast [for the second film].”
After praising the script, director, and cast of the sequel, Lundgren reasoned that Momoa grew concerned about the involvement of Amber Heard, the bad press the actress was getting at the time, and how this would affect the box office and audience response.
“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.”
Lundgren also referred to “the original,” by which he means the first version of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. A version in which both he and Amber Heard reportedly had much bigger roles.
Aquaman Is Expected to Be Rebooted for Jame Gunn’s DCU
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
The follow-up to the smash hit DC adventure Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa as the King of Atlantis.
- Release Date
- December 25, 2023
- Director
- James Wan
Lundgren is likely right in thinking that the Aquaman franchise in its current form is over, with Momoa rumored to be changing characters and playing Lobo in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DCU.
The Aquaman sequel was hammered with delays and negative reports from behind the scenes, with documents released as part of the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard defamation trial even claiming that Momoa had arrived to set drunk and “pushed” to have Heard removed from the project entirely.
While his time underwater may now be done, Dolph Lundgren has plenty in the pipeline. The action star will next lead Wanted Man, a movie that he has also directed, co-wrote, and produced. Starring Christina Villa, Kelsey Grammer, and Michael Paré alongside Lundgren, Wanted Man follows the Rocky IV star as an aging detective who travels to Mexico to extradite a woman who witnessed the murders of two DEA agents. Of course, things are never as simple as that, with Lundgren soon finding himself unable to trust anyone amid flying bullets fired from every side.
Wanted Man is due to be released by Quiver Distribution in select theaters and on video on demand from January 19, 2024. You can check out the trailer below:
