{"id":23618,"date":"2022-07-23T21:19:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T21:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ezra-miller-amber-heard-missing-from-dc-comic-con-panel\/"},"modified":"2022-07-23T21:19:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T21:19:41","slug":"ezra-miller-amber-heard-missing-from-dc-comic-con-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ezra-miller-amber-heard-missing-from-dc-comic-con-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezra Miller, Amber Heard Missing From DC Comic-Con Panel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For most of the 2010s, Warner Bros. cast a massive shadow at San Diego Comic-Con. Between its substantial presence on the showroom floor and a pull-out-all-the-stops presentation in Hall H that could stretch well beyond two hours, the studio was second to none \u2014 not even its main rival, Marvel Studios \u2014 in its ability to leverage the largest fan convention in North America to its advantage.<\/p>\n

This year, the studio took a decidedly different approach. It skipped the show floor completely, including a presence for DC Comics. And while it did use its hour-long panel in Hall H to showcase two of its 2022 releases \u2014 \u201cBlack Adam\u201d and \u201cShazam! Fury of the Gods\u201d \u2014 the studio’s biggest DC movies for 2023, \u201cAquaman and the Lost Kingdom\u201d and \u201cThe Flash,\u201d were completely MIA. There was no mention of other DC titles like \u201cBatgirl\u201d (expected to debut this year) and \u201cBlue Beetle\u201d (the first Latino superhero movie), nor updates on the future of Gal Gadot’s \u201cWonder Woman\u201d and Robert Pattinson’s \u201cThe Batman \u201d (Meanwhile, persistent internet rumors of an appearance by \u201cMan of Steel\u201d star Henry Cavill also proved to be as unfounded as they seemed.)<\/p>\n

Instead, \u201cShazam! 2\u201d star Zachary Levi bantered with costars Lucy Liu, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer and director David F. Sandberg, while Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler appeared in a scripted video message in which Mirren celebrated her female costars by saying, \u201cYay, pussy power!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was up to Dwayne Johnson, in costume as Black Adam, to bring the drama, emerging on a raised platform surrounded in smoke and sending a bolt of lightning into the audience \u2014 activating blue lights in lanyards handed out to the Hall H audience.<\/p>\n

The crowd lapped it up, but there was a palpable sense that they were eager for more: An audience member asked Levi if Shazam would fight Superman (Levi played dumb and then winked at the audience), and Johnson was asked how Black Adam would fare against the man of steel. (Johnson’s eyebrow-raising reply: \u201cIt probably all depends on who’s playing Superman.\u201d)<\/p>\n

As for \u201cAquaman 2\u201d and \u201cThe Flash,\u201d studio insiders have said those films are too far away on the schedule to warrant a big splash at Comic-Con. But in previous years, Warner Bros. Has used Hall H as a launching pad for films well beyond the calendar year. The 2014 panel for the studio included the first-ever look at 2015’s \u201cMad Max: Fury Road.\u201d Zack Snyder first announced 2016’s \u201cBatman v Superman\u201d at Comic-Con in 2013; the panel for the film was held in 2015.<\/p>\n

Both \u201cAquaman 2\u201d and \u201cThe Flash\u201d completed shooting months ago, giving their respective directors, James Wan and Andy Muschietti, plenty of time to put together some sizzling footage to whip up the buzz commensurate with the characters’ stature among the Comic- Con faithful.<\/p>\n

\u201cAquaman 2,\u201d however, costars Amber Heard, who just spent months at the center of one of the ugliest public court battles in Hollywood history against her ex-husband Johnny Depp. A jury found in June that they both defamed each other, but Depp was awarded millions more in damages against Heard, who was also relentlessly ridiculed and excoriated by Depp’s fans on social media. (She filed a notice of appeal on July 21.)<\/p>\n

And \u201cThe Flash\u201d star Ezra Miller is facing multiple woman abusive behavior, including choking a woman in Iceland and harassing in her home in Berlin, as well as two arrests in Hawaii this year \u2014 once in March, for disorderly conduct and harassment, and another a month later, for second-degree assault. (Miller has never commented on the of misconduct against them; a source close to the situation told variety<\/i> in June that the actor is privately focusing on their health and healing, hoping to address the address at some point in the future.)<\/p>\n

The circumstances of Heard and Miller’s situations are quite different. However, in both cases, Warner Bros. is facing down an impossible dilemma without much precedent, even in the #MeToo era: How to promote their escapist superhero franchises when their stars are embroiled in toxic scandals that overwhelm all other conversation about them.<\/p>\n

In the case of \u201cAquaman 2,\u201d Walter Hamada, who runs the studio’s DC unit, testified in a video deposition in the Heard-Depp trial that the studio did consider recasting Heard in the role of Mera opposite star Jason Momoa because the actors \u201c didn’t have a lot of chemistry together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEditorially they were able to make that relationship work in the first movie, but there was a concern that it took a lot of effort to get there,\u201d Hamada said. It’s not exactly a rousing endorsement for a movie.<\/p>\n

Mera, however, isn’t the central character for \u201cAquaman,\u201d and promotion for the movie could downplay Heard’s presence. That is n’t possible for \u201cThe Flash,\u201d which is built around Miller’s performances as multiple versions of their speedster character, Barry Allen. Though the studio could replace Miller for any future \u201cFlash\u201d movies, calls to reshoot Muschietti’s film with a new actor are financially untenable.<\/p>\n

The Flash was referenced during the panel, in the \u201cShazam! 2\u201d trailer, just not by name; though the character appeared on screen, Miller’s face did not. (By contrast Aquaman and Batman get a full name-check in the trailer, with Momoa and Ben Affleck’s faces both appearing on screen.)<\/p>\n

At some point, Warner Bros. will need to engage the DC fan base about these films and the actors within them. But rather than try to navigate these choppy waters in front of some 6,000-plus superfans at Comic-Con, Warner Bros. elected to avoid them altogether \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n

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